The View From Olympus: Worse Than Lissa

In 1866, off the island of Lissa in the Adriatic, the Italian Navy suffered a humiliating defeat by the Austrian Navy. The Italian fleet was superior, especially in number of ironclads. But the Austrians attacked not in a parallel line, but in a three-vic formation, relying on the ram (at one point an Austrian wooden three-decker rammed an Italian ironclad!). The Italians fled in disorder after heavy losses.Now, the Italian Navy is suffering a defeat worse than Lissa, worse because it is at the strategic, not just the tactical level. At the orders of the Italian government, the Navy is being forced to escort or carry thousands and thousands of African refugees, who are pouring across the Mediterranean at a rate of at least 500,000 a year to Italy. Navies are supposed to prevent invasions, not facilitate them. It is as if Don Juan de Austria, instead of defeating the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto, had escorted it to Italy so it could land a Turkish army.On a number of levels, this is madness. Most of these immigrants will be nothing but burdens all their lives on Italy or any other European country where they are allowed to settle. They are coming from utterly dysfunctional cultures, which they will bring with them. If they are Muslims, they will not only fail to acculturate, they will refuse to do so.All this has been true for some time. But there is something new: Ebola. It appears that in a few months, African cases of Ebola may number in the millions. Some Ebola carriers will join the migration north, which will swell further as people attempt to flee the disease. Italy has experienced the plague before. Does it really want to be Ebola's land bridge into Europe?The root of the problem is political correctness both in Rome and in Brussels. It dictates, in its usual womanish way, that we must welcome refugees regardless of what baggage they bring with them because they are "hurting." Our  own future, even our own survival, must not be allowed to enter into the equation. The abandoned puppy must be welcomed into our home even it it has rabies.A sane policy is not difficult to identify. The Italian Navy should be given a new mission: return all intercepted refugees (and it should try to intercept all of them) to North Africa. If the countries there say they will not accept them, the Italian Navy has a good amphibious capability. It simply picks an area of deserted beach, makes a landing, put the Africans ashore, and leaves. Italy is much stronger militarily than any North African state. The refugees are coming from North Africa. What is the objection, beyond a suicidal, mawkish "humanitarianism?" This is, after all, why countries have navies: to stop invaders and make them go home.Regrettably, until the Italian people demand it by voting for anti-immigration parties, the lunacy will continue, because all the other parties are terrified of being denounced as politically incorrect. We see this same paralysis in all the governements of Europe except Switzerland (the Swiss remain a people rooted in reality). That is why, in each election, the anti-immigration parties grow stronger: some Europeans want the European peoples to continue to exist in their own homelands.Meanwhile, so long as the usual cowards and imbeciles govern in Rome, the Italian Navy will continue to suffer a massive defeat that is not its fault (contrary to the popular wisdom, the Italian Navy performed well overall in World War II, despite a crippling shortage of fuel oil that meant its big ships could seldom go to sea). The politicians have turned once-noble Italy into Italia cagoia.