Its not as if bribery & Italians go together like bribery & Italians but...
A Taleban commander and two senior Afghan officials confirmed yesterday that Italian forces paid protection money to prevent attacks on their troops.
After furious denials in Rome of a Times report that the Italian authorities had paid the bribes, the Afghans gave further details of the practice. Mohammed Ishmayel, a Taleban commander, said that a deal was struck last year so that Italian forces in the Sarobi area, east of Kabul, were not attacked by local insurgents.
The payment of protection money was revealed after the death of ten French soldiers in August 2008 at the hands of large Taleban force in Sarobi. French forces had taken over the district from Italian troops, but were unaware of secret Italian payments to local commanders to stop attacks on their forces and consequently misjudged local threat levels.
I actually know a very sensible Italian army officer, who was on staff in the Balkans. He told me over a proper dinner that he spent most of his year there trying to convince us bulldogs & the Americans to stop fighting & just adopt local tactics. These were show up late in flashy uniforms, fire a few shots in the air & drive off. That way no-one (in uniform) got killed, honour was satisfied & they could get on to the serious business of the day, dinner & the ladies, untroubled. His whole thesis was that if everyone should be like the Italians, that way a lot less people would end up getting killed & the world would be a better place. Difficult to argue against that one at the moment judging by the mess that we are in on the North West Frontier
Comments
Non US NATO are total pussies. They won't fight even if you paid them to. The french surrender at the drop of a hat and the Italian uniforms follow the capo who believes in bribing first. They are just one scant level below the English pussies in Iraq around Basra who were a bunch of chickens and ran away.
What happened Europe? You lot used to fight like banshees over nothing much at all and now you surrender faster than a dutch film director dies on the tip of a muslim knife in Holland. Seriously, why are you nothing but total and complete pussies? You do know that those islamic bastards want every single real man of you dead right?
Posted by: Curtis | October 19, 2009 7:46 AM
Bad weekend Curtis?
Posted by: TimC | October 19, 2009 8:13 AM
In consideration of Curtis, TimC, we have all been having some bad weekends over here just lately. It has to do with late-Friday 'data dumps' and Saturday-morning radio addresses. Oh, and those Norge Nobel thingies.
While endorsing in large part his overall view, I apologize for its inadvertent application to the esteemed present company.
Posted by: comatus | October 19, 2009 1:37 PM
F*ck off Curtis, cnut.
Rusty.
Posted by: Rusty Ray | October 19, 2009 1:47 PM
"...They are just one scant level below the English pussies in Iraq around Basra who were a bunch of chickens and ran away."
Curtis - just a humble suggestion but the next time that the US feels like invading a fly blown &*3!hole, please do it on your own & dont expect the rest of the world to pay for American foreign policy mistakes with the lives of their young men & women
Posted by: Mr Free Market | October 19, 2009 2:15 PM
Canadian military deaths in Afghanistan 131. American 847. America is almost exactly 10 times the population of Canada.
For a long time Canada had the only tanks in Afghanistan. The sniper with the world record distance kill was a Canadian in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred Z | October 19, 2009 3:17 PM
Don't blame British troops for Basra.
Blame Parliament. They set the RoE that made it impossible for them to fight without getting cashiered.
Sorta like Obambi is doing to US troops right now.
Posted by: Kristopher | October 19, 2009 5:37 PM
Curtis, it would have been enough to say 'I am simply appalled at the cheeky way the Italians are doing business,' and then left it at that.
However, the practice is interesting, in light of accusations by liberals that 'no one picks on the Europeans.' The reason, say the liberal trolls, is due to American arrogance and rudeness, total disregard for local customs and lack of respect for their betters (betters being the liberals).
Well, now this sheds a whole new light on things.
The Italians pay protection money. Everyone is satisfied. But has anything really changed? Have they made a difference to the status quo?
Those should be the questions asked, not attacking our allies.
Newsflash: I say this as a military spouse. I would suggest you apologize to our host.
Posted by: Cricket | October 20, 2009 8:55 PM