Home > Italy to pull troops out of Iraq! Coalition Crumbling

Italy to pull troops out of Iraq! Coalition Crumbling

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 16 March 2005
6 comments

Edito Wars and conflicts International Italy

By Richard Owen and Michael Evans

BOWING to popular pressure, the Italian Government said last night that it would start pulling its more than 3,000 troops out of Iraq in September.

The surprise announcement by Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, came less than two weeks after US troops shot dead Nicola Calipari, Italy’s top intelligence officer in Iraq, as he escorted a freed Italian hostage to safety.

Italy has 3,200 troops and Carabinieri paramilitary police in al-Nasiriyah, a former insurgent stronghold in the British-controlled southern sector of Iraq. The Italian withdrawal is bound to increase pressure on the British Government to fill the gap.

Britain has had to move 650 troops from the Basra area to take over territory previously controlled by departing Dutch troops. Ukraine and the Netherlands pulled out their troops this week as the coalition began to show signs of unravelling.

Signor Berlusconi said that he had discussed the withdrawal with Tony Blair. “It is public opinion in our countries which expects this decision,” he said.

The Italians, who have a brigade deployed in and around the Shia city of al-Nasiriyah, had been regarded as one of the most committed coalition partners.

Signor Berlusconi has been one of the strongest supporters of President Bush’s Iraq policy, and Italy has the fourth largest military contingent in Iraq.

However, anti-war sentiment was galvanised this month by the death of Signor Calipari, a secret service agent, at the hands of US troops in a friendly fire incident while he was taking an Italian woman hostage to safety.

It was reinforced yesterday by the death of an Italian paratrooper in Iraq who was shot in the head by accident during target practice. He was named as Salvatore Marracino, from Apulia, aged 28.

“We will begin to reduce our contingent in Iraq before the end of the year, in agreement with our allies,” Signor Berlusconi announced on television. “The first reduction will start in September”.

He had previously always stuck to the formula that Italian troops would pull out “when the legitimate Government of Iraq requests it”.

The announcement coincided with a state visit to Britain by President Ciampi, accompanied by Gianfranco Fini, the Foreign Minister. Last week Signor Fini told Parliament that Italy wanted clear answers from the US over the death of Signor Calipari, which led to an outpouring of national grief.

British and American sources tried to play down the impact of the Italian retreat. The White House brushed aside any suggestion that the Italian troop withdrawal was a setback for Washington, and denied that the decision was linked to the shooting of Signor Calipari.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/articl...

Forum posts

  • There was never a Coalition to begin with, there were some governments whose rulers sent troops against the will of the people in their countries!
    George doesn’t care he will GLADLY go it alone, then he won’t need to share the oil profits with anyone.

  • Who cares??? We are proud of being the biggest warmongers, our whole country is based on creating war and selling weapons to fight those wars. Without war we would have no country and our war president would have nothing to do.

    • I must say that America is no longer the provider for advanced weapon technology. Also if we see
      the advertisments of Boeing or Northrop etc. it is ridiculous, because no American male is able to
      be an engineer anymoore. Therefore the developement of weapons and in some cases even the
      production is outsourced to countries like Israel, Japan or even China.
      There goes your "white" supremacy dudes. USA = Unite Stupids of America. The average American
      male serves the best as canon-fodder.
      The idiot of a president just presents the average American. So, be proud of yourself and your cardboard houses you live in.

    • We are not fooking united behind these b*stards who have taken over our country, and we would have done much better in ousting them had your Berlesque-coni not become such a sycophant and a puppet. European governments have been and continue to be enablers of the Bush War Machine. Don’t go calling us "USA = Unite Stupids of America". Take care of your own business. Your attitude is disgustingly self-absorbed.

      – Vigilante-

      You know where you can find me.

      http://www.sozadee.com/e107/news.php

    • Only 20 something percent of French and only 30 something of British and only 5% of Germans give Bush their approval, so when Americans (US) give Bush 52% approval it makes us look like fucking idiots to the 48% here, 80% French, 70% of British, and 95% of the Germans. With 95% of the Germans being able to see through Bush, I would have to say that they know a Hitler when they see one.

    • Italians vote next month ...local elections. It would be just fine if they throw out all of Berlusconi’s cronies..a message to all the world that no one is to accept the stupid, mistake-riddled war of George Bush. One blunder after another. The wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Bush has taken our government from a republic of people, by the people and for the people to a private corporation. He just does not know how to lead a government. Blunders after blunders. Come on, Italians, send a resounding message to the whole world to wake up...dump Bush.