"The Iraqi army is in such bad shape, even the Italians could kick their butts."

Ah, everyone laughs at political correctness, except when it suits them not to.

I recall reading that Winston Churchill made a similar point, though much more suavely, when Italy became an active belligerent on the German side in 1940, saying something to the effect of (a Google search fails to yield any consensus on the exact wording) "Well, that's only fair, I suppose; we did have
to have them last time."

And after all, is it such a dire insult to impute to a nation a lack of martial valor? Of course, if military proficiency is *not* a paramount virtue then we must needs fall back on other indices to support the "greatness" our public figures are so fond of attributing to the empire: Life expectancy? Uh, no. Infant mortality? Sorry. Standard of living? Take the top couple of percentiles out of the mix and you'll want to change the subject. Per capita prison population? *Now* you're talking...