Its fanaticism, its implicit totalitarianism (with inquisitors investigating every crevice of its victims' lives, from how they cooked chicken to how they made love), its sheer bureaucratic brutality — in short, its surprise, fear, ruthless efficiency, and fanatical devotion to the Pope — make it central to who we are and what we do.
With apologies to Monty Python again "Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to copyright, and nice red uniforms".
Our three weapons are fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.
And what the rest of this fine exhibition accomplishes is to show how Churchill's words can seem the expression of a life force, mixing mercurial passions and extraordinary discipline, passionate devotion and exuberant self-promotion, extravagant indulgence and ruthless analysis.
No other archaeologist of the time, it seems fair to remark, could have come near to attaining his command of incisive strategy and often ruthless tactics which won him the bewildered admiration and touching devotion of his Indian staff".
Just as English cricketers regard with awe the Aussies' single-minded devotion to winning, so Labour strategists have found a new respect for the ruthless focus of Lynton Crosby, hired from Melbourne to direct the Conservative effort.
This ruthless commander, known for his love of poetry and distrust of Plotnitsky, showed a diehard devotion to the dream of building a pan-Slavic "Novorossiya" (a historical term, now denoting the loose confederation of rebel-held territory).
"Though at no time is it acceptable, that such ruthless violence was perpetrated during the season of Ramadan, in which Muslims worldwide focus on pious devotion, prayer, charity and the cultivation of good character, demonstrates how utterly misguided and distant the terrorists are from our faith and the contempt which they hold for its values". .
