Hunglish.orgHungary doesn't have a history of victory in war and despite that fact, many of its fellow inhabitants continue to hold their heads high.
Written by Scott SavoieHungary is sort of to wars what the Washington Generals are to basketball.
Not too good.
The Washington Generals are the team who habitually plays the Harlem Globetrotters. In the entire team’s history they have only won one game, beating the Globetrotters on January 5, 1971. Similarly, Hungary defeated the Turks at the Battle of Zenta on September 11, 1697.
Both have been pretty much winless since then.
Hungary lost World War I, then kept on losing throughout the treaty-making process. They lost World War II. Twice. They lost to both the Germans and the Russians.
Then they lost the Cold War. Also, pretty much twice. First in 1956 (when the Hungarians wrongly thought the USA would help fight off the Russians), then again in 1989 (when they wrongly thought the Russians would help fight off all the American tourists).
October 23rd comemorates the failed 1956 revolution.
More recently, Hungary has gotten involved in Iraq and Afghanistan as members of the "coalition of the willing” and "NATO,” respectively.
Iraq, I can understand, kind of: Hungary was trying to pick up a quick win, an easy victory to keep from getting relegated. But Afghanistan? C’mon! They’re undefeated! Nobody comes out of Afghanistan with a victory.
So in this new century, it seems Hungary has already fallen to 0-2 in armed conflict.