Italy gets a fair bit of stick for how they performed in WW2, with a poorly prepared military, reaching too far, having lofty goals but no real way of achiveing them as well as an inept leadership.
At the top of this sits of course, Benito (Benny) Mussolini. He's generally portrayed as thuggish, dim witted and basically a bit crap, as well as being a lot of a bastard.
But how bad was he? To me he always seems to have been an ineffectual buffoon who made a good show and talked well but could never reach what he wanted. As well as being a bully and a thug. So what were Benny's failings as a leader in the build up to WW2? What did he do wrong, what were his policies that never could have worked and was he as bad as he's portrayed?