Thanks Italy!
My ancestors left The Continent beginning almost 200 years ago. Those that stayed ended up in the crematoria of the various concentration camps in Poland 65 years ago. So needless to say, I have never been a big fan of Europe and really don’t give a damn what they think about America and Americans. In fact I tend to take the view that if Europeans like Americans, then Jimmy Carter must be somewhere close by and we’re in deep doo-doo.
Italy is withdrawing it’s troops from Iraq (link). They say it has nothing to do with the shooting of the Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari.
Right.
The good news is that I believe that Italy hung in there during the heavy lifting part of this operation. It remained steadfast after losing a sh*tload of people in a Nov 2003 car bomb attack. Sticking around for a year and a half after that means something, and I am not downplaying their contribution to this point. They paid in blood for standing by us, and I’ll remember that the next time Italy is in a jam and needs our help.
We are beginning to see a nation coming out of the mess that was Iraq, one with its own interests and axes to grind. Eventually there is going to come a day when Europe as a whole is going to have to face the Iraqi people and explain itself in several ways. Why did it support Saddam Hussein? Why did it refuse to participate in the liberation of Iraq when Europe itself had been liberated in a similar fashion? Why does it continue to pretend Iraq no longer exists?
The problem that will soon face the Italians is one that Spain is facing today: once you pull out your troops, you have effectively lost your bargaining power with the USA. In fact, you drop off the map. Take Spain for example. Once it withdrew its troops and elected a terrorist-appeasing government in reaction to a terror attack, it lost all credibility with the US.
What is important to Spain suddenly becomes irrelevant to America. Our diplomats might greet Spanish diplomats at dinner parties, but how often do you think President Bush thinks about that nation?
A similar thing will happen to Italy, although sticking it out for so long means something to the US and won’t be forgotten so quickly. But withdrawing troops means Italy has taken its cards off the table. It has nothing to play.
I believe that there is no longer any reason for American forces to be present in Europe at all, and especially in countries like Germany and Italy. Today there are over 12,000 US service men and women deployed in Italy. While Italy is no doubt considered a “cushy deployment”, I would bet that every single one of those people would rather be serving their nation at bases closer to home.
Europeans may not understand this fact, but they need to: We like it better here than over there. We’re a pretty un-imperial country for an “imperial power” because of that fact, and while we Americans may see a need to deploy troops abroad, we’d rather not.
So Italy can take its troops home knowing it did a good job for which we are grateful. But it shouldn’t get egotistical about it because it soon will be off our radar just like Spain is.
