Daniel J. Matyola <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Gianfranco: > > I was not intending to say that I think Italia is a neutral country, but > that some now would like to remain neutral in the War against terrorism, > and let it be an American problem. >
Hi Dan, I hope I can express with accuracy what I could explain with a certain difficulty even in Italian... As you probably already know, governments and the normal citizens are two different entities, even when the citizens elect their governments. About the "American" problem, there has been a real race to jump in the first rank of countries helping the US in the war. I'm not very acknowledged about your Constitution, but ours states clearly that "Italy refuses war"... our actual government is doing its best efforts to go against what is written in the Italian Constitution, written after the WWII by all the political groups that was outlawed by the Fascism. > Certainly, Italia was NOT netral in WWII. It was a leader of the > Fascist bloc, and took aggreesive action against an African nation that > could not defend itself. Many Americans died liberating Italia. How > may Italians would try to assist Americans, or Bosnians, or Israelis, > today? You were indeed one of the two I expected to hear from when I > scanned my flag for the PUG, because of your comments about the US after > 9-11. > I don't know how many, I didn't ask everybody... <VBG> You say something I'm not really sure I understand: you were trying to provoke a reaction with your submission? I'm not offended by the American flag, BTW... :-) (*note* the smiley!) Seriously, what you wrote about Italy as an aggressive and imperialistic, oppressive and anti-democratic country (between the twenties and the mid-fourties) is true. After the war, and thanks to the effort of the US soldiers too, Italy returned a democratic country, one of the most pro-american countries in Europe. The Fascist Party was banned in the Constitution of the 1946. Too bad the heirs of the Fascist Party now rule the country ( :-( ) and their leader is the vice prime minister. I hope you don't feel too proud to have such an ally... > > I'm sad for all the Italians who suffered because of WWII, but remember > that Italia helped start that war. My Uncle died in Europe to help > Europeans end a war the US did not start or ask for. > -- This is very unpleasant for me and for all democratic Italians. The WWII was a result of a bunch of powerthirsty people that used the militar rethoric to gain consensus in a bad economic situation for both Germany and Italy. I won't get into a psycho-social analisys of the situation of that time, but I can suggest you to read Eric Fromm's "Anatomy of Human Destructiveness" in which the author draws an interesting portrait of Adolf Hitler. "Italia" as a whole did not help to start any war. Governments start wars. People with military, organizational and most of all financial ability start the wars. People who sympathize for the above help to start the wars. People who refuses to act against the above help to start the wars. The war, you should know better than me, is a matter of money and power. It is NOT a matter of moral or ethics or even religion. Everyone that states that is a liar. Trace the money, and you'll see who is interested in wars and who is not. Ciao, Gianfranco Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Yahoo! Shopping. http://shopping.yahoo.com - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .