Peaceniks, not neutral. Other countries are neutral, but their government, and many of their people, have retained that martial spark which is the lifeblood of a nation, even after 1945. Not us. We look more like a hippie commune than a proper country.

It all started with association “military base = The British = evil, therefore anything military is to be despised.” We drove the final nail into the coffin with military labour corps and that most loathsome of epithets: “Mietna ta’ xejn.”

“Correct. We were never neutral before Mintoff.”

And neither were we after, or even today. Far from making us neutral Mintoff aligned us with the worst of the communist dictatorships as well as Gaddafi’s regime.

Post 1987 we thankfully steered away from communism but not, it now seems, from Gaddafi.

Correct. We were never neutral before Mintoff.

Before the Great Siege there were many other smaller sieges which were bravely won even before 1530 and the arival of the Order of St. John meaning we fought ALONE and won. The one “tal-hobza u gbejna” is the stuff of leggends

During the Napoleonic wars there were maltese on both sides.

Also in WW1 many maltese served in Saloniki

Let us give this moron a history lesson. In the 13th century, Enrico Pescatore set off from Malta to capture Crete with 300 “juvenes maltenses”. Out of a population of less than 10000.

The Great Siege I think we’ve heard enough about.

In the 17th and 18th century, the Order couldn’t keep up with demands for letters of marque so Maltese ship owners and sailors could sail the heaving brine on corsairing missions.

Malta sent a contingent as part of the Toulon squadron in the American War of Independence.

In the run up to, and during, the Napoleonic wars, the British were recruiting Maltese sailors and gunners by the bucketful.

Tiny Malta sent contingents to the Sudan Campaign and the Boer War.

Maltese sailors were on board Royal Navy vessels as far away as Jutland during the First World War.

The Second World War we’ve pretty much covered.

This, then, is a martial nation. The “nurse of the Mediterranean” historical mission is a complete fabrication.

If by “history”, Muscat means “The World since The Year Zero – 1972” then that’s another matter.

After this debacle, the Electoral Commission should seriously consider introducing the “neutral” option (besides the yes and no boxes) on the ballot paper in the divorce referendum.

Funny how he made a meal of it (the conflict), advocating intense tourism campaigns when our neighbours were being butchered.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110319/opinion/tweeting-on-a-private-jet