Friday, December 01,

Arrivederci Iraq; Benvenuto Roma: Italian Troops leave Iraq Today!!!

The ANNOTICO Report

The "Coalition of the Willing (but not very enthusiastic, but appropriately financially or politically motivated)"  lost another member today. Starting with 9 nations with over 1,000 troops deployed, only the US and Britain will still have forces in Iraq by January !!!! (Another 41 nations had "trace" amount of troops, most of whom have left.)

In "Operation Enduring Farce" 32 Italian soldiers died (including 19 in one day).

See http://iraq.pigstye.net/index.php?topic=italy

That site does Not include the deaths of either:

Intelligence Agent Gen Nicola Calipari, who died protecting journalist Giuliana Sgrena from  US troops.

Fabrizio Quattrocchi, a 36-year-old security guard, taken hostage, and as the assassins were pointing the gun at him, tried to take off his hood and shouted: 'Now I'll show you how an Italian dies' ... he died as a hero."

Italian troops should have never been there !!!!!! 

The ONLY justification was protecting Italian Oil interests in Southern Iraq,

Another case of a nation's youth being used as cannon fodder to protect corporate interests.

Let them hire "Mercenaries" and pay them commensurately!!!!!!

Oh, pardon me, THERE ARE 69,000 "Private Military Contractors" in Iraq!!!!! in addition to the 162,725 Regular Troops.  Can you spell Gurkha, and Hessian??

Italian Forces Withdraw... From Iraq

The British army said that the last Italian soldiers were set to leave Iraq on Friday, ending a three-year mission in the war-torn country.

"The last of the Italians are leaving today to Kuwait and from there they will go to Italy," British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge told AFP.

"All of them will be gone by the afternoon," he said.

The Italians were based in southern Iraq along with British, Australians and Romanian forces.

Earlier this week, Italys Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the remaining 70 troops would leave Iraq in the first few days of December.

His announcement came as Britain said it would pull out thousands of its 7,000 military personnel from Iraq by the end of next year.

Poland also said this week that it would withdraw its remaining 900 soldiers by the end of 2007.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that theIraq Study Group, which is reviewing the U.S.s policy in the war-ravaged country, recommends the withdrawal of American combat troops by early 2008, and calls for direct U.S. talks with Syria and Iran.

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12680

The ANNOTICO Reports

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