Posted on 06/19/2011 3:24:49 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
ROME, June 18 (Reuters) - Any Italian debate about the possibility of ending active involvement in the NATO campaign in Libya could encourage its allies to push for a non-military resolution, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.
"I say that the government and parliament thinking about a date for the closure of our active participation could serve as a stimulus to our British, French and American allies to find a diplomatic way out of the crisis," he told the daily Corriere della Sera.
La Russa said Italy could "consider the hypothesis of setting a term to our active participation in the mission" although "the willingness to make our bases available would remain."
He said any decision on a change of policy would not come before the end of the current 90-day period authorised for the mission at the start of June.
"In that period, as a country which is involved in the actions of which thus has a voice which counts, we should work as best we can to favour diplomatic and political solutions which could lead to the period after Gaddafi," he said.
La Russa's comments appeared in part aimed at conciliating Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's coalition allies in the pro-devolution, anti-immigrant Northern League party, who have been against the mission from the start.
But they also underline growing unease in the western alliance at the lack of progress in toppling Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has vowed to resist to the end. ....
La Russa said the government would be looking at cutting the cost of all of Italy's foreign military missions, which include more than 3,800 troops in the NATO force in Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Obama has stabbed our European allies in the back by leading them to believe America stood by them and then leaving them in the lurch and refusing to overthrow Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan's good comrade "Mad Dod" Momar Kaddafy.
When you strike at a king, you must kill him.
After some years of peaceful overtures towards Qaddafi and his capitulation and cooperation with them now we’re stabbing him in the back too. 0baMao is sending the message to ally and foe alike that America can not be trusted.
Kadaffy has murdered US citizens and servicemen. There is no statute of limitations for terrorist attacks on Americans.
It is not he but WE who have capitulated! NO LONGER!
Yeah, that’s worth destroying our credibility as a nation for decades to come. Dim bulb.
Yes, of course, we don’t need to have respect and trust from anyone we don’t like. Like Assad, Ahmadinejad, the Saudis, the Russians, the Chinese, the North Koreans ... they can all expect us to double deal them at any time. Idiot!
We should stick it hard to every single group you mentioned. They are our enemies. They don’t need to trust us and we should never trust them. Trusting Kaddafy was a stupid as trusting Kim Jong-Il. Bush even sent nuclear fuel to North Korea to get them to stop their nuke program. How did that work out? You think we are going to make friends with Kim Jong -Il because we convince him he can trust us? You are living in a dream world, man! The only thing they understand is the threat of extinction! I’m not an idiot, YOU ARE, and so is anybody else willing to defend Ayatollah Obama’s spineless refusal to support regime change in Libya. Anyone who thinks we should leave Kadaffy in power now to plot his revenge against us is worse than an idiot!
Now, I wasn't talking about making friends with any of them or giving them anything. Anyone with a half a brain would know that I didn't say that. Anyone with half a brain would also know that there has to be some trust between even hostile parties in order to negotiate anything. That leaves you out on all counts.
As much as I would like the U.S.' policy to be one of nuking Mecca and giving them the choice of keeping to themselves or being obliterated I know that isn't going to happen. Not now and not under any other administration. It sucks but that's reality and sane people deal with reality.
ANYONE WHO SUPPORTS THE TERRORIST KADAFFY SHOULD HANG THEIR HEADS IN SHAME!
Did I say that? I will answer since you are incapable of it. No.
I am not for Obama's policy because I am for WINNING the war against Kaddafy which Obama's is LOSING!
Your posts continually say otherwise.
YOU on the other hand WANT America to lose this war ...
It's not a war it's a kinetic military action. Your BFF, 0bama, doesn't call it a war. I want Congress to defund it and get our forces out of it. We have no national interest there.
No doubt!
If you think we are stabbing him in the back it's because you think he is our friend and ally which we should not "stab in the back."
Personally, I will never support America's enemies while we are fighting a war against them, regardless of who is president.
You are the one who said it's not a war because YOUR Ayatollah Obama said so. I on the other hand, don't care WHAT that moron reads off his teleprompter!
I have answered that before and so have others. We pushed for disarmament and Qaddafi cooperated. We pushed for better relations and Qaddafi cooperated. The U.S. gov was dealing with Qaddafi, through his son, for mutually beneficial agreements as recently as a few weeks before we started bombing him. You know all that and pretend that you don't. The mark of a liar.
If you think we are stabbing him in the back it's because you think he is our friend and ally which we should not "stab in the back."
The ignorant blathering of a fool with a personal agenda.
Personally, I will never support America's enemies while we are fighting a war against them, regardless of who is president.
We are not at war with Libya. We have no national interest there. We are merely supplying military assets and cash to help Soros and the Muslim Brotherhood take Qaddafi down.
I on the other hand, don't care WHAT that moron reads off his teleprompter!
You obviously believe in his bullshit kinetic military action.
Only a complete idiot who denies history would say “he got away with” with the Lockerbie bombing.
Case closed!
Case closed ... on you.
I was NOT for Bush legitimizing Kadaffy and establishing normal relations with him. It was wrong.
I have NEVER supported ANY President making deals with Kadaffy!
You don't know what the hell you are typing about!
YOU are the one who supported Bush's and Obama's appeasement of the terrorist Kadaffy! Not I! So look in the mirror, buddy!
Libya's Pan Am Atrocity - April 22, 2003 - The Bush Administration has continued negotiations started by Bill Clinton that may settle this case by letting the dictatorship of Libya pay financial awards to families of the victims and take some form of responsibility for the crime....The deal included an agreement, which was kept secret for over a year, in which Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was promised that the trial would not "undermine" his regime. This was viewed as a guarantee not to charge Gadhafi or his top aides. Dan Cohen, who lost his daughter Theodora in the bombing, responded, "Why shouldnt we undermine the Libyan regime? The same group of murderous thugs who ordered the bombing are still there in Libya."Susan Cohen has warned against any deal that lets Libyan dictator Gadhafi or his regime escape responsibility for the 1988 bombing. She says, "My child has been killed by Gadhafi, and I want to see him pay, not rehabilitated." Of course she means "pay" with his life.
Here are a sample of my other anti-Kadaffy posts over the years:
Gadhafi Becomes Africa's Imperialist Pig - December 18, 2002
The Good Tyrant - Qaddafi: The New Castro? - The media's new favorite dictator - August 6, 2003
Dissidents Tell of Torture, Secret Prisons, Executions Under Libyan Regime - March 01, 2004
So, no, sorry it wasn't I who was cheering our government's refusal to punish America's enemies, you have me confused with someone else, yourself maybe. You shouldn't make so many assumptions and then you won't be so damn wrong so much!
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