(Ig) nobles in uniform.
As far as I can see from the access statistics, my description of the "high" commands of the Italian military world has hit the mark ((see the previous post)), so I wanted to go ahead and deepen a bit. On the "mutation" of the Russian regime, I will speak maybe tomorrow.
I don't want to come up with personal anecdotes, and on official circles (in which you can still enter, even if you are on leave) I have an opinion that includes much more than a simple striptease (nothing against striptease, however, as it is the Burlesque), so I'll stop here.
Let's try to check the facts: the most effective modern armies are those of countries that do not have nobles (such as the USA) or those that have got rid of them (France reached the peak of its military power after the Revolution, ditto Russia, ditto China).
The nation that was once a military power, but held the nobles, is now in a state of decay: strange. Strange because the British are still at the state of the art in the production of weapons (BAE, etc etc), and so far they have soldiers who fear no one, even without putting the Gurkas (who are "colonial") in the way the British Marines give sand to the American ones.
Let's put it this way: removing the nobles from the armed forces is not enough to have excellent armed forces, but it is enough to have the nobles in the armed forces to send them to hell, despite good weapons and excellent soldiers. The so-called "donkey-led lions", to paraphrase the historian Alan Kenneth Clark.
Even in the Italian army, at the beginning of the formation of the kingdom of Italy, there was a prevalence of nobles. Why'? Well, because nobles depend on the King for both honors and "promotions", so the King felt he had some control over them. In addition, the nobles were educated, in the face of an almost illiterate population. Of course, there was a small bourgeoisie, but this does not mean that the school of Tire of Turin was populated mainly by nobles with the qualification of lawyer.
What is the culture of the nobles?
- contempt for ordinary people and their skills, considered expendable or expendable.
- consider one's career a right of blood, an equivalent of promotion to seniority. Blood and seniority.
- having a career that coincides with proximity to the throne (or the government of Rome), participating in all events on the Roman terraces, striptease in official circles, riding clubs, sailing, and so on.
This is the first culture that hovered, and still hovers, in the staffs and academies. Aeronautics could be an exception, in the sense that it was born with fascism (Balbo) and therefore has few nobles. However, she is sick with "Balbism", which exists as a term because narcissism is not lacking in those parts.
But perhaps there is a need for a separate discussion on stammering.
This is triggered by some "dynasties" that seem to have their doors open for generations, in the sense that if we take a few names we discover that for generations they have had a career in the armed forces: they are not always bad officers, I served under a Sauro (like Nazario Sauro , in short) and he was a splendid commander, but there are also worse cases, let's say “non-vocational” to put it mildly.
To make matters worse there is the fact that the Italian armed forces do not have the legal instruments to send away the officers who are not making a career and are starting to turn mold.
So you are in a situation where an officer who has NEVER sailed has the rank of Vessel Commander, which requires having passed Frigate Commander, and also Corvette Commander. But without ever having commanded them, you just practiced. The truth is that if you reach a certain age and have never commanded a corvette (ships are few but the naval academy churns out officers galore), you should be discharged. Instead they are switched to logistical roles. And you find characters who take their leave as Admirals without ever having sailed.
The commander of Frigate Gregorio de Falco is one of these, who arrived by competition without ever having left a captain's office and therefore never sailed. (he was offered the chance of an operational job, but he found it "punitive", for one thing).
Consequently, if someone goes on a mission, shines and returns home, he immediately annoys a plethora of characters encamped in Rome, who are seen to be bypassed. I've already talked about this.
But now let's turn to the problem of purchasing weapons and other means.
So: first of all the nobles and campers of Rome do NOT know what is needed. It would be too practical and would require a knowledge they despise, that "hands on box". The other countries compete by saying "we need a sbraus that is so fast, so robust, so powerful, etc". Then come the companies that compete, comparisons are made, and poof.
In Italy, on the other hand, we proceed by contingency.
Let's take an example: Israel wants to sell its state-of-the-art drones to Italy. You will think it is a trivial problem of bribes. But that's not often the case.
First of all, there will be a commander, or a reference officer who has advocated the purchase of these drones, and maybe even supervised the tests. Good.
This officer is aiming for promotion. But in the Grande Campeggio di Roma there is another who aspires to the same place. Which proposes, in consortium with another that is operational enough to have it tested, an Italian drone, perhaps less advanced. Let's say noisy, to give a "sad" example.
Once again you will say that it is a problem of corruption, and you are right in the sense that bribes run in ALL purchases by the armed forces. But this happens all over the world.
The problem is that even when importing the drone there will be a problem of bribes: in the case of the Italian drone it is the manufacturing company that pays, in the case of the foreign one it will be the "importer". So don't discard the Israeli drone for it.
The official excuse to discard it will be found further on, but inside the commands it will say "so it's too easy, what do they think they are, in a videogame?".
You think that "too easy" should be a good thing, but you have forgotten that if it becomes "too easy" to do well, an officer decorated for having done a splendid work.
Hence, the Israeli drone will present nuances of difficult interpretation regarding the legality of its use in war theaters.
(which means nothing, but does its job).
Example two: suppose that, as happened in the 1980s, the San Marco Battalion exercises together with the marines, and outclasses them. This is a danger: with similar results, whoever commands the Lions could also make a career. One from Brindisi, who never takes part in the rome orgy parties? Are we joking?
Let me be clear, I am not saying that after that episode the San Marco was reduced to a small regiment for this reason, (and only now it is being reimplemented): there was also the anger of an American officer, and the Americans do not tolerate. to be beaten.
Another example. On 3 and 4 October, in Somalia, the "Battle of Mogadishu" takes place, made famous by the film "Black Hawk Down". The defeated Americans beat it after suffering losses and after the bodies of dead American pilots were dragged through the streets and displayed on TV. The trouble is that the Somalis try to do the same thing again, a few days later, on 9 October, because the Westerners were looking for the weapons depots used to attack the Americans. Carabinieri and the Wolves of Tuscany are carrying out the investigations. When they find the weapons, the Somalis decide to attack with the same technique used against the USA. But this time they choose the Wolves of Tuscany as their enemy. And the Somalis didn't do as well:
I do not want to say that it was a coincidence, if in the subsequent "restructuring" of the Italian army, the Wolves of Tuscany were first downsized and finally their war flag was withdrawn in 2008 . But strangely it is a body that took a medal, where the US took the blow, and it seems that they have been punished for it.
You will find many of these patterns in Italian history, after the First World War. And I say after the First World War because in the final analysis, before the First World War, the Piedmontese were more or less the Prussians of the boot, and they never made a bad impression on us, on the contrary: in Krimea they were admired.
BUT the problem lies in the watershed of the First World War, when many returned from the front decorated with victory, and upset the ranks and planned careers.
For the other officers who camp in Rome, Italy does not have to do well at all, win well, win again. If anything, there must be glory, if anything there must be pride, then El Alamein is the perfect battle: a medal for valor makes a career, a medal for memory does not.
And therefore, no one will ever have the right equipment. It will always be "almost" right.
The Italian air force has a particular history, linked to a guy who was called Italo Balbo. And to understand its defects, it is necessary to understand "Balbism".
But first let's go to the situation of the air force. The Navy and the Army were equipped with airplanes, which they used mainly for reconnaissance, but (little mentioned) in the First World War, when it was seen that Italy had too few of them, they mainly enlisted smugglers and other, how to say, traffickers who they worked between the Adriatic (a seaplane was still the fastest way to cross the Adriatic, even to escape the police, for example) and were based in the myriad of Croatian islands, to the east.
On this flourishing smuggling trafficking, which also developed due to the absurd law that prohibited the Veneto from growing tobacco, and to the legislation that mainly concerned goods that were forbidden to export from Italy, a long list including the Comacchio eel (sic !), a certain piracy was also triggered against other (legal) seaplanes and small boats. D'Annunzio also has something to do with it, but that's another story.
When the war shows (both to Diaz and as he calls De Revel) that they have few planes, they just raise their wages and hire these characters. So already the air force of the First World War was made up of "aviation aces", normally nobles who have the hobby of flying, and a whole crew of which it would be nice to know more. (In case you were wondering, "Porco Rosso" is much more philological than what is said). However, among the Croatian islands and inlets (and often also the Venetian ones) we had fun, that's it.
After the war, a certain economic growth resumes and pam, in the north of the Adriatic arrives first D'Annunzio who creates his state in Rijeka, which during the crisis was supplied by sea also thanks to all these characters who in exchange received impunity. , and in short, the north of the Adriatic becomes even more interesting, especially in the 4 years of the Free State of Rijeka, which became quite "libertine".
At this stage the seaplane is the king of air transport: since there are not many runways, and road maintenance is not reliable, lakes, rivers and coasts are the perfect place to land on a seaplane. The north Adriatic becomes an even more interesting place. And both the Navy and the Army don't have enough planes yet, while the world has more, so they resort to these characters.
This thing could not last long with fascism, and at a certain point Mussolini decides to put things in order. He takes Balbo and asks him to form the Italian Air Force. Now, why Balbo? Because the quadrumviro literally doesn't know shit, but he has the bad habit of being younger, more beautiful and more women like Mussolini. And since he made the march on Rome while Mussolini had not even taken the train, he is famous. Mussolini already fears his competition, and decides to give him something to do. Hoping it fails, so it can fall out of favor.
But Balbo is from Ferrara. The Ferrara ego is as big as the Sicilian one. So Balbo says “a fag tut mi '” and gets a flying license. Since the women of the period like aviators (and in the north Adriatic there is fun), Balbo decides that this is his future.
The trouble is that he does not know how to attract the smugglers to convince them to enter the new body, and on the other hand the King is wary of this new weapon which belongs only to Mussolini. So, Balbo starts with a new "public relations" campaign that must make aviation the most admired body in the country. (and then ask for money).
But there is a problem. Balbo is "vaguely narcissistic". At what level? Let's say he is from Ferrara. Do I need to add more? And so to begin with, the aviation uniform has to be cool. But very cool, in a world where uniforms were already beautiful and elegant. But it doesn't stop there.
And then the "heroic crossings of the oceans" begin. He makes several, in the first ones someone leaves his skin but Balbo takes the opportunity to paint on himself the aura of "Audace" (although it was the poor quality of the aircraft that caused the tragedy), and in the end his fame thus becomes huge that ends up in the Times:
And after ten years of daring crossovers and acrobatics, he makes the crossing of the tenth anniversary, and arrives in New York with all of Little Italy applauding him and 36 American fighters escorting him on a triumphal tour. Congress gives him a medal, and Roosevelt invites him to dinner. American mayors call streets after him. Even a fucking Sioux tribe names him "Flying Eagle Chief" (sic!), And he obviously accepts. Nothing is thrown away from fame.
As he returns to Italy even more famous and titillates his cunt more than Mussolini (which smells like a pig due to an ulcer that makes him vomit everywhere, which women normally don't like), Mussolini takes it out of the box and sends him to govern Libya. Balbo being what he was, first he had us erect a beautiful triumphal arch in marble, and then he made the Via Balbia. (sic!).
Obviously, paratroopers are also born, again because of Balbo who, tired of waiting for Rome, creates them in Libya. (sounds cool, if we forget that Balbo used Libyans to test parachutes and exit techniques: initially they used an emergency parachute that couldn't do what they wanted to do, so there were several incitations among the "Ascari del Cielo" of Libyan ethnicity. Obviously the Italian "Infantrymen of the sky" were not stupid.).
Having said that, you will have understood the point: the Italian Air Force was born from a clique of braggart and narcissist womanizer paracriminals who are more interested in impressing women and putting on airs of daring and heroes, than really winning wars. And since women were expensive even in those days, they often pocketed some money.
This is the culture called "Balbism", which in English I could translate as "cool before of important". What does it mean? It means that Italy enters the war with planes that made shit in terms of performance, without a flotation boat in case the pilots fell into the sea, but they had fabulous uniforms.
That said, the Italian Air Force still suffers, in many things, from "Balbism", or the tendency to "cool before of important". I realize that, for those of my age, seeing Cocciolone whining on TV did not give this feeling of daring.
However, it could happen that you buy a plane more because it is "cool" than because it is useful, so to speak. (I never said F-35. Me). It could happen that the cloth bag that covers the machine gun of an airplane costs € 33,000, according to Italo Balbo's practice. Futurism could be in vogue among public relations graphic designers:
And it could be that a year before the centenary they are still convinced that they have been flying for 80 years:
So how can it be, operationally speaking, that they decide to use the Piaggio P1HH HammerHeads, which have a rating of this type:
But how cool it is to see. And the design is "Ferrari approved". Then, the fact that it is "vaguely noisy" and emits a "unique sound" ( https://web.archive.org/web/20171212140720/https://www.aspentimes.com/news/aspen-airport-gets -earful-about-noisy-airplane / ) I guess that's a detail.
Which finally arrived: https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/29136-italy-swaps-long-ailing-hammerhead-drone-for-manned-planes
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/analysis-what-went-wrong-at-piaggio-and-is-there-a-454006/
To then abandon it:
WarSpot
These are the effects of stuttering: we want to be cool at all costs, but we can't afford it.
In short: Sboronissimo, Gassatissimo, Fighettissimo.
For the win, you will wait after Fashion Week.
Having said that, I specify one thing: Balbo was perhaps the only one of the quadrumvirs to challenge the regime by saying that the racial laws were bullshit and that he did not want to end up polishing the Germans' boots. And… he died of "friendly fire".
With this I hope I have better explained the distortions that undermine the culture of the armed forces, even today.
Ah yes: vexata quaestio. If I had to remove someone because it is too fascist a name, I would honestly remove others, with names ranging from La RUssa to Meloni, to say it all. Balbo was a scoundrel narcissist, but he wasn't exactly the well-liked, nor was he the aligned.