I always expect to see your names in one of these...

[Haggis Killer]

I think there's something more sinister, if you will, going on. I think money changed hands to get the Italians to buy in. How else do you explain their sanction of a group of Americans who fence so pitifully? Or, is it a strategy they've pursued knowingly, in the hopes that The Sickness would so pervade American fencing as to render it hopelessly behind internationally? This all started, remember, at a time when the USFA was working to get more members (which they accomplished) and there was a large influx of ex-Soviet bloc coaches migrating to the states.

Perfidy or Strategy? Could be either, couldn't it?