As
an appointee of Geo Bush, the US
Ambassador to Italy shows incredible
amount of unmitigated gall to chastise Italy
as one of the European countries who is attempting to keep Military Spending
under control, when it was Bush that impetuously and unwisely invaded Iraq, and is
spending US into a Dizzying Deficit, and caused so much Human Suffering.
U.S.
Ambassador Criticizes Italy
on Defense Spending
Washington Post
Reuters
Thursday, October 12, 2006
ROME (Reuters) - The U.S.
ambassador, in a rare case of a diplomat openly criticizing a host nation's
spending plans, has said Italy's
shrinking military outlays put at risk its ability to finance NATO missions and
wield strategic influence.
At a time when
the new centre-left government is pushing a cost-cutting 2007 budget through
parliament, Ambassador Ronald Spogli made a speech
saying Italy
was a "prime member" of the group of NATO countries whose defense
budgets were falling.
"With
defense expenditures sinking well below 1 percent of GDP, Italy will have
a harder and harder time maintaining its prominent role in the alliance both in
terms of missions and strategic influence," Spogli told a conference on Wednesday, according to the
text of a speech released on Thursday.
After winning an
April election, Prime Minister Romano Prodi shifted Italy away from his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi's close relationship with the Bush
administration and announced a military pullout from Iraq.
But Prodi has backed Italy's
continued presence in Afghanistan
and has sent the largest contingent to a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon,
despite misgivings by pacifists in his government.
In an apparent
reference to Prodi's difficulties dealing with a
broad coalition ranging from ardent pro-U.S. politicians in the center to
communists and pacifists, Spogli said Italy found it
politically difficult to increase defense spending.
"Ideological
divisions within political coalitions and a general lack of public awareness
about NATO and Italy's key role
as a contributor to peace make it harder to make the right long-term security
choices," he said in his speech to the NATO Defense
College.
A communist
member of parliament said Spogli had no business
commenting on Italy's
budget debate.
"The
representative of an allied country should abstain from intervening in the
internal choices of Italy,"
Severino Galante said,
adding that the draft 2007 budget foresaw a 4.6 percent increase in defense
spending, an amount he aimed to reduce.
NATO member
states are meant to aim for military spending of 2 percent of GDP, but most
miss that goal.