Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

It is not going to stop...

Options
  • 13-11-2003 11:49am
    #1
    Éomer of Rohan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,335 ✭✭✭


    Bomb attack on Italians and Iraqis.
    Quoted from Reuters article
    Martino, who has blamed the bombing on supporters of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, was also expected to inspect the blasted military police base on the Euphrates riverfront in the town, 375 km (235 miles) southeast of Baghdad.
    Quoted from Reuters Article
    About 2,300 Italian troops are in southern Iraq and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said they will stay.
    Quoted from Reuters Article
    The suicide bombing came after a Central Intelligence Agency report concluded that Iraqis were increasingly siding with insurgents amid doubts about the U.S. ability to defeat them.

    The report, warning of possible failure for Bush's efforts to establish Iraq as a democracy if the problem is not fixed, said aggressive U.S. counter-insurgency measures disillusioned many Iraqis and pushed them to back rebels, one U.S. official said

    CIA Say US is losing support in Iraq

    US mish-mash of governance ideas.

    Given the bloody carnage that we are now seeing from Iraq every day (and on the way to university this morning I believe I heard that yet another American soldier has been killed making the total 157 US soldiers), plus the CIA admission that the US occupying forces are loosing whatever small support they enjoyed among the Iraqis, the lack of faith in the US-dictated Council plus the seeming US incompetence regarding suppressing so called terrorist activity and rebuilding the shattered infrastructure, is it likely that this new US puppet government will be inaugurated some time next year?

    I don't think so. The 'terrorists' are too committed now; there is really only one way this can end so long as the terrorists hold some support within the population of Iraq.

    I also think that sooner or later fractures will appear within the Italian government if they continue in the short-sighted and incompetent manner in which they are presently going.


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    The Corinthian
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,777 ✭✭✭✭The Corinthian


    Originally posted by Éomer of Rohan
    I also think that sooner or later fractures will appear within the Italian government if they continue in the short-sighted and incompetent manner in which they are presently going.
    Not from this single incident. Opposition left-wing parties are making the usual rhetorical noises, but even within their ranks there is disagreement on whether Italy should pull out. Certainly they would, like a majority of Italians, be opposed to this deployment, but now that they’re there it’s not as simple as that any more.

    Of the coalition presently in power, only the Lega Nord are likely to try and use this for political capital, and even there this is unlikely. The whole point of supporting the US was to increase Italy’s international standing and to counter in the increasing level of influence in the EU of the Franco-German axis, so pulling out now would be disastrous.

    Of course, this would be the case after a single incident. Were the situation to deteriorate, then this assessment may accordingly change, but for the time being any fractures within the Italian government are likely to be little more than political game play with no real intent.


Advertisement