With
Prez Bush reeling from Failures vs
Al-Qaeda, in Reconstruction of Katrina/New Orleans, Questionable success
in Afghanistan, the wrong headed, ill fated Invasion and Debacle of Iraq,
the Wrongful Delay of Cease Fire in Lebanon, Futile Gestures vs North Korea, the Impotent Efforts vs Imagined Threats vs Iran, have
made the USA less Arrogant, and more Agreeable.
It
has also emboldened European Powers to attempt to be a Counter Power to the USA's plan to be ALL Powerful, in a One Voice World.
For
instance: Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
has defied forecasts that his centre-left government would fail on foreign
policy and antagonize Washington with his surprising success in rallying Europe
behind the U.N. mission in Lebanon.
Prodi appears to have put himself in a Win-Win Bigger position.
"If
Prodi succeeds he gets a Nobel peace prize and if he
doesn't -- which is more likely --
he will still look fairly good because he took a risk and did the right
thing,"
Prodi's achievement is more
remarkable because he has forged ahead with a multilateral approach without
offending U.S. President George W. Bush, who went as far as to publicly endorse
Italy's
future leadership of the U.N. peace force in Lebanon.
Analysis-ITALY DEFIES
DOUBTERS WITH FOREIGN POLICY DRIVE
ROME,
August 30 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
has defied forecasts that his centre-left government would fail on foreign
policy and antagonise Washington with his surprising
success in rallying Europe behind the U.N. mission in Lebanon.
His
strategy could backfire if Italian troops come under fire in southern Lebanon as they try to keep the truce between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas. But for the moment he has the
international community and the Italian public behind him.
"If
Prodi succeeds he gets a Nobel peace prize and if he
doesn't -- which is more likely --
he will still look fairly good because he took a risk and did the right
thing," said James Walston at the American
University of Rome.
Prodi's achievement is more
remarkable because he has forged ahead with a multilateral approach without
offending U.S. President George W. Bush, who went as far as to publicly endorse
Italy's
future leadership of the U.N. peace force in Lebanon.
When
Prodi beat conservative leader Silvio
Berlusconi, an unflinching supporter of Bush, by a whisker in April polls, it
was inevitable the former European Commission president would steer foreign
policy back towards Europe.
A
freeze in relations with Washington had been
thought likely when Prodi proposed accelerating Italy's
withdrawal from Iraq
and named a former communist, the ex-premier Massimo D'Alema, as his foreign minister.
But
D'Alema,
who talks of his new friend "Condi" (U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice), said this week he had proved wrong "those who predicted
the Prodi government would
fall on foreign policy and a break with the United States".
"The
pillars of Italian foreign policy were traditionally a commitment to Europe and
to the Atlantic," said Walston. "Berlusconi pushed it very much one way and
now it is back."
"Forza Italia!" said France's
Le Monde in an editorial that hailed Italy's
new foreign policy drive, which besides Lebanon also includes offers to engage
Iran on its nuclear plans and Hizbollah to secure the
freedom of Israeli hostages.
Prodi, who holds power at the head of a fragile coalition ranging
from Catholic centrists to greens and communists, could say this week with some
justification that Italy
has "an important role on the international stage".
However,
not everything is to the liking of Washington
and its allies. D'Alema
says Italy
has contributed to the start of "a new phase in the world,
characterised by the end of the unilateralism that
followed Sept. 11 2001".
He
told Corriere della Sera daily that the Lebanon mission signalled
a "return to multilateralism, with the U.N. as protagonist, Europe in the
centre and Italy
is back on stage."
If
that raises eyebrows in Washington, D'Alema has also
offended some Israelis and Italian Jews by locking arms with a Hizbollah politician on a recent trip to Lebanon.
His
comments that "Iran
is a great country" and "Hamas and Hizbollah are not al Qaeda"
are not music to Israeli ears.
Berlusconi's Forza Italia party
accuses D'Alema
and leftists in Prodi's
camp of being anti-Israeli. Ex-President Francesco Cossiga
said this week they were "pro-Arab and anti-Israeli".
Richard
Perle, a key architect of U.S. Middle East policy,
voiced doubts to Corriere della Sera about how the
Italian peace contingent would deal with Hizbollah
guerrillas.
"If
you are soft, as perhaps some people in your government would like, the mission
will fail and the relationship between Italy
and America
will become very difficult," Perle said.
Rome says it hopes to build on strong ties with
Israel forged by Berlusconi
while taking advantage of its lack of colonial "baggage" in the
region plus its strong trade and diplomatic relations with Iran, a backer
of Hizbollah.
One
senator says Italy
is working behind the scenes for the release of two Israeli soldiers whose
capture sparked the recent war, although the government has officially denied
this. Italy has also asked
for a bigger role in nuclear talks with Iran.
For
the moment Italians are behind the government -- a new poll shows 51 percent
back Italy going to Lebanon.
That
is in contrast to the war in Iraq
where the majority was against Italy's military presence, and the NATO mission in Afghanistan
which has divided the parties in Prodi's
government.
But
the poll also showed 47 percent opposed the mission, mostly centre-right
voters, meaning Lebanon
has not united Italians of all political colours as Prodi says.
The
political gains could be short-lived. Iraq showed the Italians do not
tolerate seeing their soldiers hurt abroad. If the truce in Lebanon
collapses, opinion could turn quickly.
"The
problem will be when an Italian soldier or any blue helmet is at the wrong end
of an Israeli tank," said Walston.