If not, it will find that politicians' phones in Warsaw are engaged when it needs boots on the ground in a foreign war.

ECONOMIST: Europe

Going back to the Korean War, it took the army quartermaster until 1953 to issue thermal boots to the troops on the ground in Korea.

FORBES: My Country Fails Me, Twice

Despite the moral, humanitarian and strategic arguments for intervention, Syria is a trap that threatens to suck external powers in and shackle them with responsibility for war-making, peacekeeping and a reconstruction effort that could eventually involve thousands of boots on the ground and billions of dollars in assistance.

CNN: Obama's no-win options in Syria

During World War I the company, which eventually became known as Hunter, produced 1.2 million rubber boots that soldiers could wear in trenches.

FORBES: A Brand Re-Booted

Journalists covering the war in the early 1980s began hearing of a tall, dapper man in Afghan robes but English-made bespoke boots who was called the Saudi Prince and the Good Samaritan.

WSJ: Bin Laden Was Nurtured in Ease, Destined for Infamy