I take your point, Arkady -- it would be hard to deny that many were fierce fighters.
I'd argue, though, that cowardice was still lurking underneath it all. At least, that seems to be at the root of all the right-wing frothing on both sides of the Atlantic. I've been saying it for years -- bluntly put, right-wingers are a bunch of pussies, afraid of their own shadows.
My gosh, I don't need to look farther than my own brother. He's been a cop in a tiny, tiny town for years. This place is so tiny, he once called me all excited because, "I got to do an actual investigation!" Basically, his job is to round up the Friday and Saturday night drunks, respond to the very occasional car wreck, do some rather desultory traffic patrolling, and help bust the local meth dealer every time he gets out of prison. (The dealer is not what you'd call a criminal mastermind.) Yet he spends his days glued to Fox news and some channel that features nothing but disasters and conspiracy crap and fretting over "prowlers" taking his stuff. (Which -- well, frankly, being a cop in a tiny, tiny town doesn't really leave you with a lot of thief-baiting luxury goods laying around. What the hell does he think they're going to steal? The cat boxes?)