Eagerly Awaiting the Italian Report on the Sgrena Affair
I have been waiting all day for the Italian version of events surrounding Sregna’s miraculous escape from kidnappers and her death defying dash through an American checkpoint that had intentionally targeted her for death. Whew…Pulitzer Prize in the making. But I was disappointed. No report today.
I will do my best Carnac impression and predict what the Italians will conclude in their independent, un-biased report.
First, they will conclude that they (who specifically contacted who?) contacted the US command a full 25 minutes before the Sgrena kamikaze machine was throwing itself at a well established, well known checkpoint, manned with armed and determined American servicemen.
They will conclude that 25 minutes was more than enough time for any competent force to coordinate such a pass through. They will not mention that they called L/Cpl Whatshisface, night operations clerk in Eastbygod, Baghdad, who had no idea what they were talking about since there was no prior coordination, BECAUSE they knew we would protest vigorously against paying ransoms…ransom money that has found its way into the violence over the past week or so. My current tally….Sgrena ransom = 100+ dead. Sorry I digressed a bit…and that the US military fumbled whatever information they were given, so instead of an easy pass-through it turned deadly because of American incompetence.
They will conclude that the Sgrena escape Fiat, slowed to 30 kph (metric here), in order to improve their chances of getting through the checkpoint unscathed. This will fly in the face of the evidence that Capt Ed http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004386.php gives via the CBS report last week, which convincingly shows that the vehicle was going in excess of 60 mph (English units here) when it approached the checkpoint. This will be the first recorded example of the Military Journalistic Complex actually succeeding in coherent messaging while they conduct their ongoing conspiratorial effort to dominate the world through favorable press for military units.
They will conclude that US troops used excessive force in stopping the vehicle, and thus causing the death of the Italian agent. This again flies in the face of the evidence…the force used was actually necessary to stop the vehicle. Warning shots went unheeded, so consequently our troops applied the exact force necessary to ensure compliance by the marauding vehicle. The vehicle could have stopped, if the driver had applied the breaks at any time, and complied with known checkpoint procedures.
The Italian report will conclude that the American report is inaccurate in many areas…sorry the information contained in the envelope is not clear to me, but I am pretty sure that the incompetent Joint Official Cover Up Team of USCENTCOM has made several critical analysis errors, in an attempt to cover up the wrong doing of many up and down the Chain of Command. It will be only with superior, and communistic journalistic influences that the Italian analysis will uncover so easily, what our best cover-up artists thought they could keep from coming to the surface. So a conspiracy of some kind will be revealed through superior, Italian investigative techniques…and the US military will be exposed in their attempts to cover up many egregious acts of commission and omission that resulted in Sgrena’s injuries and the agent’s death.
The Italian report will conclude that those manning the checkpoint were incompetent and under-trained. The usual slams to the “institution” and its marginally mentally equipped members. I’d still say they got the vehicle to stop…mission complete.
Bottom line…the Italian report will slam the US and the servicemen who manned the checkpoint. It will do so, not in an attempt to get the truth out, but in an effort to keep politically viable, Italian candidates who have supported the coalition in Iraq…whatever… again our European Allies will have slammed the efforts of our troops in the field, just to gain political maneuvering room at home. Not the first time, won’t be the last, but I refuse to take it seriously.
I have yet to see a serious journalist piece that takes the Italians to task for adding millions of Euros (metric again) to the insurgency, and the subsequent result in the cost of Iraqi lives. Until the Italians own up to that, nothing they have to say should be taken seriously.
4 comments:
I do wish that people would not use the blanket term 'European' all the of time. We in the UK do have our anti-war brigade, but we also have 8,000 troops in Iraq. Incidentally one of those troops was killed yesterday by a roadside bomb.
No slander intended to our loyal friends, my comments were directed to those who opportunistically claim to be allies, all the while trying to play both sides, because they feel the need for political expediency at home. This has not been the UK way, but it has been virtually the rest of Europe. Sorry again...no slam intended on the British
While the English Channel might only be a short distance between Britain and mainland Europe, there exists a wider chasm in terms of foreign policy and security views.
While the British leftwing garners all the attention, there is a sizeable number of Brits that are supportive of U.S. policy and the efforts to get rid of Saddam Hussein. You'll never convince the BBC of that, but it's true.
When I confront European passiveness and lack of conviction, it's an automatic assumption on my part that I'm not including Britain in that criticism, and more speaking to the nations in western Europe, or "old Europe" as Donald Rumsfeld put it. France, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Luxembourg.
But Major Mike makes a valid point, which is governments like Schroeder in Germany, Berlesconi in Italy, and the Canadian government, who proclaim to be supportive allies, but then are forced to cater to an anti-war and/or anti-American segment of their population. Schroeder was partially elected on an anti-American platform.
They can't afford to do much else until they develop the family jewels to defend their own countries.
A number of these countries have a very large and active bunch of Islamists. In Holland, the middle class and wealthy are actually moving out of the country because the terrorists living there have killed or threatened their public officials.
If they won't defend the homefront, they sure as heck won't help defend any where else!
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