Thursday, March 17, 2005
Silvio Berlusconi was present yesterday on the TV program “Porta a Porta”, a famous political talk show invented by the journalist BrunoVespa. The Italian Prime Minister expressed his desire to pull back the troops from Iraq starting from this September. "I've spoken about it with Tony Blair, and it's the public opinion of our countries that expects this decision," Berlusconi said, and “starting with the month of September, we would like to proceed with a gradual reduction of our soldiers."
Berlusconi is going to run has Prime Minister again in 2006 and the opposition that his country is showing to the war in Iraq might have forced this decision.

His nickname, “The Knight”, refers to the fact that he actually is a “knight among workers” according to an Italian tradition that concedes this title to extraordinarily valuable working people. He immediately highlighted that an Italian pullback depends on whether Iraqis will be ready to manage their country. Italy has deployed about 3,000 soldiers in Iraq, (which means the fourth power) and most of them are acting as peacekeepers in the town of Nassiriya. In November of 2003, 16 Italian soldiers died when a car bomb hit their headquarters there.

While the “coalition of intents” that President Bush created is facing a difficult period, this announcement does not fit the American will to maintain a certain number of soldiers as long as is deemed necessary.

Both Bulgaria and the Ukraine are also starting to leave and Poland (which is involved with 1,700 troops) wants to reduce its military effort. Holland has a combined army of 2,900 in Iraq (with Ukraine) and is starting to pull back its troops even while Britain and the US asked them to wait longer. Spain already brought its 1,300 soldiers home last year. Other nations that pulled back their troops in the last year are Hungary, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Norway, Portugal and Bulgaria.

According to William J.Cole of the Associated Press, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said that this reduction of the troops is a part of the natural process that is intended to leave the security of the country to the new Iraqi Government and "the plan is to have the Iraqis fill in everywhere," and added, "that process will continue and indeed accelerate."

Condoleeza Rice announced from New Delhi that it is certain that the Italian withdrawal will not be problematic for the US, adding that this country has already shown is dedication to the United States. The US Secretary of State was also sure that a pullback will be “fully coordinated with the US [security forces]”. She also talked about the “proven experience” of the Italian Foreign Affairs Minister, her past experience with the Italian government and her trust in these elements.
Similar announcements, in diplomacy, are usually intended simultaneously to be clear messages and compliments so that they can be understood quickly by the subject. A good translation of Rice’s announcement would be the following: “We understand the Italian political situation and Berlusconi’s personal intersest in being re-elected in the forthcoming elections, along with the loyal commintment that Italian troops have shown to us, but must underline the fact that it could be too early to move in September or, in the case that it will be the right time, we want to coordinate better with the Italian army in order to avoid international scandals like Calipari’s.

White House Spokesman Scott McClellan remarked on the fact that the withdrawal will be tied to the Iraqi political situation. He said, "this will be based on the ability and capability of Iraqi forces and the Iraqi government to be able to assume more responsibility and that he will work in agreement with allies in the region before taking those steps," as quoted in the New York Times.

In the crucial part of the war, 38 coutries were present with their troops, bringing coalition forces to a total of about 300,000. This war was inteded from the begining to be less “expensive” in terms of troops. The superiority of equipment that the US G.I.s can count on is the “technological gap” the Iraqi resistance fighters have to face. G.P.S. satellites, nocturnal infravisors, fully defensive uniforms and modern guerrilla tactics were the base of any US soldier.

Iraq’s former Baath party members and other fighters have already been more restistant than expected. Saddam himself, speaking about a possible war against the United States, said it was impossible to think of a victory in the case of a frontal attack. Instead, the fight had to be conducted as a guerrilla war, like in Vietnam, constantly keeping the American army occupied and attacked from every possible direction and in any possible way, as the only chance Iraqis had to defeat such an enemy.

Australia, Britain, South Korea, Albania and Georgia are, however, still standing fiercely with the United States and NATO is still involved with the Iraqi security forces’ training mission.

Some secret agents from Iraq pointed out that Italian agents are not fully collaborating in the search for Sgrena’s kidnappers, and the Italian government has always unofficially declared that they do not want to collaborate with any other intelligence, if not forced, because they only trust their 007s.

As the coalition and American soldiers are starting to leave, the US troops remaining have more responsibility and are more exposed than ever. The operation “Iraqi Freedom” is ending and the new Iraqi Parliament just had is first sitting yesterday. The whole situation allows us to think about an opportnunity for a real Iraqi government coming from the January 30 election. This cabinet must be able to face a difficult internal religious and economic split. This country is about to witness its first freely elected National Assembly, and Shia Muslims already announced that they failed to discuss a common political line with both the Kurds and the Sunni Arabs, as reported by al-Jazeera.
Jalal Talabani will be Iraq’s first Kurdish president and the Sunni are supposed to participate in this government but still did not make any move toward this goal.

We sincerely hope the new cabinet has the “physique du role” to face this situtation.



http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FEB50942-9D86-4202-9BF7-2AF21DF0572A.htm
http://www.freep.com/news/nw/troops16e_20050316.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/16/international/europe/16italy.html?ex=1111640400&en=180ba9dbdc888998&ei=5053&partner=NYTHEADLINES_INTL
Il Romanaccio at 11:37 AM