Friday, March 11, 2005
At the conference held yesterday by the Italian Senate regarding the Sgrena Affair everyone was expecting Mr. Berlusconi to clarify the events better and , first of all to talk about the ransom.
But the Prime Minister did not mention the question and confirmed the official Italian position that denies any payment ever made to the terrorists.
The Senators to listen were fourteen, six of them had to talk for ten minutes, one for fifeteen, the rest had 2 to 4 and a half minutes.
When Berlusconi took the microphone he quicly recalled the facts (the Italian version) and pointed out that a mixed commision between the two countries will be investigating the case soon.Claiming that to be a sign of the Italian diplomatic succes.
Peter Vangjel will be the American General to collaborate with the Italian one in the investigation of Calipari’s death.
Berlusconi wanted this operation to be “as fast as possible, two-three weeks long at the maximum”.
The Italian General to be chose will be able to speak a perfect English, will be experienced in the Iraqi territory and knowledgeble about the code that US soldiers must respect in a war zone.
Plus there will be an Italian diplomat to coordinate the two militars
Berlusconi repeated that “there is not any kind of link between the presence of Italian troops in Iraq and the abductions.” And that the “case of a friendly fire is the hardest one to digest”. He is also conviced that “there is not an organization to kidnapp journalists in Iraq.”
The rest of the speakers covered a diverse political spectrum going from the extreme anti-war postions to a neutral support for the Prime Minister’s policy.
Even if not officially discussed, the “ransom issue” was the main point the Italian government had to fix in order to agree with the American policy.
Both the Foreign Affair Minister, Gianfranco Fini and Berlusconi know this very well and agree about the necessity of find a solution to the problem, because “it is not possible that the Italian government is still paying fo the missiles that the Iraqi terrorists are buying in Dubai” as reported by “Corrierre della Sera” the Milan based daily newspaper .
After a long week we were finally able to clarify better some aspects of the issue, we understood why the American version of the facts and the Italian one are so different.
Calipari’s death has been an orrible mistake and I am sure the guys from the third regiment who shot the Italian agent at the checkpoint are terribly sorry.A fighter does not like to kill allies.
Moreover it is unuseful and unpractical to blame the troops who are daily facing a nightmare at those checkpoints and are not expected to be almighty.
Young soldiers should not be loosing their lives in such a dangerous place, but this is a reality that we cannot change at the moment.And Bush knows that.
Runors in the Senate were quite claryfing about the international scandal, it has been said that Sgrena was lingering for too long in the Mosque on February 4 and she admitted that.
The task force sent to freed her made a mistake in the first place because “it would have been better for the agents to bring her [Sgrena] at the Italian embassy in Baghdad and leave the country the next day,” Rumors from the Senate have said.
WHY THE ITALIAN AND AMERICAN VERSION OF THE FACT ARE DIFFERENT
The American political and diplomatic position
As any diplomatic case, an explanation can be satisfying only once the internal political situation of the countries is studied and understood.
There are many elements to consider and all of them require a deep understanding of this aspect.
The American position takes place in the dangerous diplomatic environment of a military invasion of Iraq right after the Afghanistan campaign.
Everyone who denies any economical interests of the United States in the operation “Iraqi Freedom” is not objective and not thrustable.
It is undeniable at the same time that “you cannot export a democracy with a war” and the elections did not bring any democratic government to be effective in Iraq. The war is ended, the guerrilla continues.
United States (and certainly not only them) are interested in oil revenues in this country, democracy is interesting too but trying to deny this fact is not admitable.The fact itself, in my opinion does not need to be judged as it’s a normal question of interests, always witnessed in any political system since millenniums and frankly defended by every political group ever existed on this planet.
I do not blame the American government for that and I prefer to be represented by the United States than anyone else.
We know that at the time of the invasion (March 2003) not every country agreed on that war and the UN were unable to handle the situation.
This is the reason why an ally like Italy (we lost 20 soldiers and an hero in Iraq) which is always been thankful to the American government since the liberation (1945) cannot be threated in any other way but kindly.
Sgrena’s declaration about the fact that the US troops were trying to kill her surprised too many people.
If they were really trying to do so then “someone in the US army needs a long shooting training” as heard in the Italian Senate yesterday.
We know they were not trying to kill anyone and that was immediately clear.
What it seems not to be clear is that Sgrena was held in captivity for a month and that is not an easily forgettable experience.
No one gave to this journalist the possibility of taking a breath and thinking about what happened.
She has been described in many ways but seldom as a tired and angry person who witnessed the death and the extreme povertry of the Iraqi people. (take a look at the pictures she took there, http://www.libreriadelledonne.it/news/foto_sgrena.htm )
She always declared herself a lover of this country and witnessing what is happening there could have been shocking for anyone.
It is stupid for any American to think that their interests should be enorsed by everyone on this planet, to claim the fact that a democratic republic must be installed in Iraq is purely ideological, then why are they not trying to export democracy in Chapas where inhabitants of small villages cannot come out of there because the Mexican government ordered the “Mattanza” (when a group of animals is slaughtered collectively) against the villagers so that if some of them come out they just cut him in pieces, as referred to me by the an “international witness” went there a few years ago, my sister.
How far is this country from the US? And why democracy there is not important at the same level?
Please let’s try not to be ridicuolus and laughable when speaking about International Relations.
Ever wondered what that “stupid” Sub-Commander Marcus is trying to do and why?
Knowing what the US troops are facing in Iraq it is not strange they might kill some innocent and I do not think it is possible to avoid tragedies sometimes, it is a question of big numbers, if you put an hundred men with long knives in an closed small room it is likely that somene would be wounded at some point, everyone understands that.
Knowing that the Italian agents made some mistakes in the first place don’t you think that Bush and Rumsfeld have been kind enough toward our government? Ever wondered why? It is obvioulsy that they are walking on a razor’s edge in Iraq and they cannot risk to loose an ally.
Even for the most powerful country in the world it is not easy to find an infinite numbers of soldiers to send in a war zone, allies are important and no one was born yesterday in the American government.The fact that many American soldiers are very young is well known, http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/
The Italian political and diplomatic position
Mr. Berlusconi was forced by the Italian and International public opinion to freed Sgrena.
Administrative elections are going to take place in Italy in April, therefore the government could not risk to loose the majority or any possible vote, for its own stability.(would you like your government to fail as a Prime Minister?)
This is also the reason why both Fini (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and Berlusconi repeated the concept of a “strong Italian diplomatic image” that came out from the incident when Bush immediately excused himself in a phone call and when the Mixed commission was decided to start, the same concept was reiterated.
Our Prime Minister found himself in the difficult situation of having to balance the United Staes requests of avoiding any possible ransom to pay to the terrorists and the pressure of the public opinion that wanted the “communist” Sgrena freed. Italian communism by the way is very different form the Russian one and is not a revolutionary movement but a part of the government like is counterparts in every Western democratic country. It is never be intended, in other words, to start a “dictatorship of the masses”, based on the control of the production, like in the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist phylosophical scheme in Russia. This due to the extremely democratic spirit estabilished by the Resistance against the fascist dictatorship.
The Italian govrnment however cannot officially admit the payment of the ransom as that would be against the American interests.
Our president does not want that to happen, both becasue he admires Bush and the United States in general and because financing the jihadist movement it is not the smartest thing to do and declare.
I am sure our president did not want to do it but had to.
One one hand it was not possible to leave the leftist journalist in captivity, on the other, it was not possible to admit the payment of the ransom for many reasons, it could have been dangerous for any Italian who is working in Iraq that would be saw as a source of money by every kidnapper.
That would be anyway, like going against the United States in the first place, not doable.
This case put the Italian government in a very difficult situation, it’s been said that “our journalists need to be more cautiuos and aware about the territory [Iraqi] and to be in close collaboration whit the troops and the checkpoints while doing their work in Iraq” and respectful of every suggestion from the military.This is to avoid any similar situation in the future.
My personal conclusion is that the Italian governments wants to coordinate better with the necessity of not paying any other ransom, which is the understandable and logical American request.
As I already explained it was not possible to clearly and officially blame the Sgrena for her “misbehavior” due to the pressure of the International Public Opinion that thinks the war itself it is not supportable (Is it shameful to be a pacifist?).



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Il Romanaccio at 10:40 AM