Comments on: U.S. Military Interests Reign Supreme in Italy

By: bozhidar balkas

bozhidar balkas — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 13:45:53 +0000

m kenny
u make some good points. can u explain why US can’t establish military bases in egypt, jordan, iraq, and in israel?
US already has bases in the emirates/saudi arabia from which to defend israel.
and by US law israel is US territory. in add’n attacking israel means attacking US.
when US ships bringing in supplies to UK were sunk by Uboats, US declared their ships US territory and attacked germany in 1917.
under angary law a land at war is allowed to use or even destroy property of a neutral country.
US by bringing in supplies to a belligerent land wasn’t even neutral.
of course, US wld defend israel; after all where US property is , that’s where US is. thanx

By: Valerio Volpi

Valerio Volpi — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:54:31 +0000

I suggest Mr. Kenny should do a little researching before posting his comments everywhere … the city in question happens to be Vicenza, not Verona … but I know out of experience that facts are not important to him, and that all he cares about is busting people’s balls … I wonder: does anybody pay him to do that, or does he just find sheer pleasure in it, perhaps because he’s got nothing better to do in life? “Troll” sounds like the appropriate word, I believe …

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:19:51 +0000

An interesting point on all this is why the US wants to expand the Verona base anyway. I think it is because of the three priorities of US foreign policy, which are, of course, (in order of importance) Israel, Israel and Israel. The only purpose of maintaining US bases in Europe is to keep forces and military supplies near Israel but the US and Israel have made themselves so hated in the world, and have so discredited NATO in Afghanistan, that they have to reckon with refusals of permission to use bases to defend Israel or refusals of overfly rights. Getting at Israel therefore means coming in via the Mediterranean coast, which means bases in countries with direct access to the Med. Hence the airbases in Spain, Italy, and Turkey (although they must now be worried about that one!) and the naval facilities in Naples and Piraeus. I would guess that the expansion in Verona is to allow them to bring planes in from more northerly climes, such as the sole stealth bomber squadron (22 planes), now based at Ramstein, where it could be totally boxed in.

I would guess the strategy would be to keep Mildenhall, in the UK, directly accessible from the US without overflying anybody, as a refuelling stop, plus the abovementioned air and naval bases, without counting on Turkey and let the rest go. In a modern state to state battle, they need initially only bombers with nuclear capability, strike aircraft, a few AWACs and tankers, and the seaborne capacity to supply them. Ground troops can be flown in from the US when the threat is clear and imminent. All of this will, of course, be worse than useless in fourth generation warfare …

See you later, agitator!

By: Richard Posner

Richard Posner — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 03:39:56 +0000

U.S. Citizens for Peace and Justice is just another website featuring an articlel about the No Dal Molin group. Nothing sinister about that as far as I’m concerned.

Olol Jackson can be found as a signatory at the sites below. Click “edit” on your toolbar, then “find on this page…”. Then type Olol Jackson in the dialogue box.
http://www.prague-declaration.org/
http://www.socsol.cz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=536&Itemid=1
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article5174

By: Richard Posner

Richard Posner — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:25:17 +0000

The important information to be gleaned from this article is the simple fact that ordinary citizens of italy are uniting to stand against the further encroachment and oppression of amerikan fascism. This is more than can be said for the citizens of the united states. I suppose, depending upon ones’ point of view, this could be considered “amusing”.
I am beginning to suspect that Mr. Kenny above is a bit of an agitator. I believe the term commonly used is “troll”. His purpose, rather than engaging in any measured debate or discussion, is to foment discord and arouse anger which distracts from the purpose of such progressive forums as these. Mockery and insult are common currency used in trolling. Disagreeing is one thing, baiting and disparaging is quite another. Such individuals are best ignored completely.

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:50:35 +0000

An amusing article which sums up all that is bad in Americans abroad! First of all, Ms Westbrook puts a big exclamation mark after the fact that a law dating from 1924 came up in the legal proceedings, as if there was something unusual about that. That, in its turn, suggests monumental ignorance of Europe on her part and discredits her entire argument. The French Civil Code dates from Napoleon’s time and the German Civil Code dates from 1900. The latter applied under the empire, the Weimar Republic, Hitler and both halves of divided Germany!

Then she calls No Dal Molin a “grassroots” movement and but quotes a certain Olol Jackson as a spokesman for the movement. That’s a funny name for an Italian! Where exactly is this grass growing?

Then I clicked on the link in the article and found myself in the (English-language!) website of an organisation called “U.S. Citizens for Peace and Justice”. How very noble of said US citizens, but what does that have to do with Italy? Don’t Italian citizens have any say in the matter? And don’t people speak Italian in Italy, or is it only the Sopranos?

What’s the difference between the right Ms Westbrook and her “grassroots” friends claim to meddle in Italian politics and the right George Bush and his neocon friends claim to meddle in Afghanistan and Iraq and Iran and Russia and Venezuela and, and, and …? Isn’t it just two sides of the same coin? Tweedleright and Tweedleleft!