Friday, March 18, 2005
Yes, no, maybe
Will he, or won't he? continues. After the initial "We're withdrawing," followed by "We're not withdrawing", Berlusconi is in trouble in Italy for changing his story. Berlusconi's response?
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"I am not changing a single word of what I have said, this was a case of disinformation, a scandal, castles in the air agains [sic] the truth. I have only stated common sense things which everybody should agree with... We are not an occupation force, we are there to make sure that Iraq can become independent and democratic and we have started this process with the recent elections... We are training and preparing Iraq's future police and security forces and slowly these forces will be capable of guaranteeing law and order, the Italian troops will be able to decrease their presence... There is no pullout plan yet and there has been no reaction from the EU yet."Castles in the air against the truth; I love these translations from the Italian news agency. Meanwhile, there is at least one person who thinks that Berlusconi should definitely, certainly, positively, stick to his word (the first one, that is) - Guiliana Sgrena:
"Berlusconi has, for the first time, announced his intention of withdrawing troops and that is undoubtedly a positive fact. We must, therefore, induce him to keep his word."Otherwise, presumably, all of Sgrena's hysterics and communist anti-American propaganda would have been in vain (and the terrorists would not have won). But Al Qaeda (or Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq, to be more precise) is not impressed either way:
"We tell those whose might was humbled in Iraq and we tell Italy, the worshipper of the cross, that we will continue to fire bullets at you... The longer Italy stays in Iraq the greater will be its losses... Jihad has started to bear fruit."And who says that appeasement doesn't pay?
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