Rosario A. Iaconis, Director, Italic Institute of America opined: "Though Italy 
has been a staunch NATO ally for more than 50 years, it is lightly regarded 
by Washington.  Fini's visit to the U.S. received no press coverage.  And his 
announcement of Italy's commitment of troops and ships went unnoticed". 
That is the reason I felt the need to speak out in the following "Letter to the 
Editor".

(RAA Comments: The points that are brought out in the following Letter to 
the Editor, and the Article it responds to, stirs thoughts I have long wondered 
about.

This is a 50 year old problem, so we can not blame Mr. Berlusconi.

Israel gets First Class Favored Treatment, substanially because Jewish 
Americans make their influence felt.

Italy is treated Second Class! Why is that?

Is that partially because Italian Americans feel no need or interest in 
supporting Italy's Agenda, or is it that the Italian Government has not 
recognized the potential power of Italian Americans to be utilized to Italy's 
advantage???? ) 
===================================================
To the Editor:

Re "A Bush Admirer Longs to Join America's A-List"  (Rome Journal, Oct. 20):

That President Bush needed prodding to welcome Prime Minister Silvio 
Berlusconi to the White House is not as distressing as his reluctance to 
include Italy among America's most loyal friends in the fight against global
terrorism.

Mr. Berlusconi is seen as the second-tier leader of a second-class power. 
Mr. Bush appears to have little appreciation for Italy's pivotal role in Western 
Europe, the Balkans, Africa and the Middle East. In addition to providing both 
NATO and the United States with a military presence in Aviano, Sigonella, 
Crotone, Gaeta and Naples, Italy remains a key diplomatic player in capitals 
as far-flung as Pyongyang and Beijing.

Perhaps Mr. Berlusconi should reconsider his unrequited love for a fickle ally.

ROSARIO A. IACONIS
Director, Italic Institute of America
Mineola, N.Y., 
Oct. 20, 2001
========================================================
A BUSH ADMIRER LONGS TO JOIN AMERICA'S A-LIST

The New York Times
Rome Journal 
By Melinda Henneberger
October 20, 2001 

ROME, Oct. 19 — Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has never made a state 
secret of his political crush on the American president, George W. Bush.

Or of his disappointment when Mr. Bush did not think to put Italy on the list 
of countries, including Britain, France and Canada, that he thanked for their 
support on the day the bombing of Afghanistan began. (Mr. Berlusconi, who 
is famous for taking his politics personally, was said to have been beside 
himself.) While the leaders of A-list allies got calls from Mr. Bush, 
Mr. Berlusconi had to hear about the American-led military action from Vice 
President Dick Cheney.

This week, after some prodding from the Italian ambassador to Washington, 
Ferdinando Salleo, Mr. Berlusconi was at last received at the White House. 

"You can see, when you look at a man and a woman together, or at two men, 
if they're in touch," said Mr. Berlusconi's spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti, who 
was along on the trip. Mr. Bush and Mr. Berlusconi, he reported, "have that 
look of being in touch."

After returning to Italy, Mr. Berlusconi promptly announced that a pro-
American rally would be held here on Nov. 10 — an idea widely criticized by 
the right as well as the left.

Mr. Berlusconi apparently feels otherwise, after a state visit to the United 
States that many in the Italian press found woundingly short on pomp.
The Associated Press Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, visiting Washington 
this week, strolled with President Bush to speak with reporters in the Rose Garden.

He has strategic reasons to bond with Mr. Bush. "He feels left out with 
Social Democrats in charge" across most of Europe, one Western diplomat noted, 
"and this is one way to counterbalance that."

He is also under fire for his recent comment that Western civilization is 
superior to Islam. Today, protesters pelted Mr. Berlusconi's car with eggs as 
he arrived at a European Union summit meeting in Belgium, whose foreign 
minister recently said on television that he would give Mr. Berlusconi a zero, 
on a scale of 1 to 10, for his leadership since the Sept. 11 attacks.

With Europe so hostile to him, no wonder Mr. Berlusconi seeks solace in 
America. La Repubblica reported that, "George Bush finally made the time 
to meet the Italian premier, who would have liked to have been greeted with 
far more solemnity." Corriere della Sera ran a cartoon of Mr. Berlusconi 
reciting Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" to Mr. Bush.

"It's a one-way relationship," said James Walston, a professor of political 
science at the American University of Rome. "It's embarrassing."

One reason for the low-key reception in Washington, of course, was precisely 
Mr. Berlusconi's recent comments about the West and Islam.

In some ways, Mr. Berlusconi's frustration is not that new. Italy is the world's 
sixth-largest economy and a sophisticated Western democracy, but because 
of its history of revolving-door governments, it has had difficulty being taken 
with the seriousness and respect it feels it deserves.

After Mr. Berlusconi, who is Italy's richest man, was not invited to a meeting 
of French, British and German leaders just before today's summit meeting, 
he showed how much he minded. At a news conference, he said he could 
not have fit the meeting into his schedule anyway, because he had a 
previous engagement with center-right leaders from Spain, Austria, and 
Luxembourg.

Of that group, he boasted that he was "the leader of the most important country."

Mr. Walston said that for both Mr. Berlusconi and Italy, "the preoccupation 
is, `Why don't we count more?' " 

Mr. Bush did tell reporters at his joint appearance with Mr. Berlusconi earlier 
this week that: "I'm pleased to be able to give him a lunch. After all, I had 
one of the best lunches I've had since I've been the president because of the 
prime minister." A Berlusconi aide said he was fondly recalling the tricolored 
pasta in the red, white and green of the Italian flag, prepared by Mr. 
Berlusconi's personal chef during Mr. Bush's visit to Rome last summer.

Giulio Ferrara, editor of the newspaper Il Foglio, who first suggested the idea 
of a pro-American demonstration, said his friend Mr. Berlusconi "likes the 
plain speaking of Mr. Bush, including the gaffes from time to time. That's the 
bridge between them."

In an interview during his campaign last spring, Mr. Berlusconi was self-
mocking about his admiration for all things American: "I am on whatever 
side America is on, even before I know what it is."

He had been widely criticized in Europe even before the remarks about 
Islam, particularly over his handling of antiglobalization protests in Genoa, 
where the police shot and killed one young demonstrator.

The Italian prime minister's pro- American agenda also leaves him at least 
theoretically vulnerable to criticism at home, where he is popular but 
America is not. "The main feeling here is anti-American," said his friend 
Paolo Guzzanti. "The left here thinks the only good Americans are Woody 
Allen and the Kennedys."