A thoughtful, enlightening and thought-provoking post, Marco. Many thanks.
Lawrence
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-moq_discuss@venus.co.uk
> [mailto:owner-moq_discuss@venus.co.uk]On Behalf Of Marco
> Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 7:05 PM
> To: moq_discuss@moq.org
> Subject: MD Bombs and Chocolate
>
>
> > Bombing of Germany, Italy and Japan in WW II was not justifiable?
>
> Hi all,
>
> as representing the 50% of the Italians here :-), I feel the need
> to say what I
> think about the WWII in Italy. Take it as a forecast of a
> possible thought of an
> Afghan or an Iraqi of year 2050 A.D.
>
> One of the most philo American person I've ever known was my
> father. He loved
> John Wayne's movies, studied English in the 50's at an American
> school (his
> English was better than mine!). He was in the first line in the protests
> against the Soviet invasion of Hungary (1956). His visit to New
> York in the 80's
> was for him a dream becoming truth. But especially he had a
> strong remember of
> the day when the allies finally entered in Bologna, in spring
> 1945. He was 7,
> and, at times, war was for him a normal condition of life.
>
> There was a small difference between Italy and the other two
> countries. In WWI
> Italy was allied of UK and USA. Germany and Austria were then our
> traditional
> enemies, and Italy was a very young nation: the three wars for
> independence
> (from Austria, and the Pope, mainly) ended about 1870. But a
> portion of the
> northern Italian territory was still under the Austrian empire,
> so WWI was for
> Italy the occasion to complete the unification of the nation.
>
> In short, the WWI was won with great loss of victims, and with
> the decisive help
> of the USA. But after the war, Italy was not a better place.
> Communist ideas
> were menacing a weak democracy, and, in order to avoid it, the
> King and the
> richest families found it good to give the rule to a populist,
> Benito Mussolini,
> formerly a socialist, that had founded a new party. Mussolini
> organized a golpe,
> the "March on Rome", in 1922, actually a farce, as no one was
> there to stop
> them. Italy became a fascist country.
>
> Fascism was a blend of Nationalism, Futurism (an Italian modern art form),
> Actualism (the philosophy of Giovanni Gentile), and nostalgic feel for the
> ancient times of the Roman Empire. Mussolini was a great orator,
> especially
> effective on a largely illiterate population: he spoke the language of the
> people, and for a nation divided in a myriad of dialects (northerners and
> southerners could not understand each other clearly) it was a great worth.
> According to the fascist propaganda, the mission was to make of
> Italy a modern
> nation. So, the enemies were large estate owners (land to the
> people!), the
> Church, the Marxists, and mafia. Actually, the only enemies Mussolini
> annihilated were the political opponents... and mafia. Yes, in
> the 20s, many
> mafiosi had to go to America (you all know about Al Capone....).
> BTW, it's well
> known here the role of Sicilian mafia to help the American forces
> to disembark
> in Sicily in 1943.
>
> Actually, Mussolini invented the modern dictatorship. Control of
> information,
> one only political party, nationalism, populism: the same
> ingredients used by
> Hitler in Germany, Franco in Spain, Pinochet in Chile. He had in
> the first years
> good economic results. Italy was in mid 30s a country in which
> every opponent
> was killed or forced to exile, but it was also a wealthier nation.
>
> But he was mainly an adventurer. In 1940, when Hitler's power
> seemed impossible
> to be stopped, he declared war to an already defeated France. He
> was sure that
> the war would have been short, and he was trying to gain
> something at the table
> of the political deals, after the war. As we know, he was wrong.
>
> Italian population was largely against the war, and this is IMO the small
> difference between Italy and Germany and Japan. And more, many
> felt it was not
> good to be allied with Germany, despite of the political
> similarities: since the
> times of emperor Augustus, we never had good relations with
> Germans.... and it
> was an about face 20 years after WWI.
>
> Anyway, we entered the war. In short, after three disastrous
> years, the Great
> Council of Fascism decided to displace Mussolini and enclose him
> into a jail.
> The allies had already invaded southern Italy, and were going
> northward to take
> Rome. The King (really a poor figure in all these events) escaped
> to South. The
> Italian army secretly dealt the capitulation to the allies. Many Italians
> thought that the war was over.
>
> Not at all, the war had still to begin. Nazis were not stupid,
> and took northern
> and central Italy. They massacred many divisions of the Italian
> army. Mussolini
> was liberated and he became a straw man in the hands of the
> Nazis. The members
> of the Great Council of Fascism were executed as betrayers. Since
> winter 43/44,
> Italy was divided in two, the King in the South with the allies,
> Mussolini in
> the North with the Nazis. While the south learned soon to forget
> the war, in the
> north a civil war begun. Many fascists went on supporting their
> ancient leader,
> but many of the soldiers escaped to the mountains and begun the partisan's
> Resistance. Actually, WWII has been for Italy a civil war.
>
> Without the help of the allies, of course, it was impossible to
> free Italy from
> the Nazis. A great worth of the allies was also to help the
> Resistance to create
> the nucleus of a future democratic nation. In short, as the
> allies were coming
> to conquer a new city, they were not seen as conquerors, rather
> as liberators.
> The allies had helped us to win WWI, let's not forget it. Again,
> the Italian
> population saw these Americans (and British, Australians,
> Indians..) come and
> decide the conclusion of the war. A lot of young boys were dying
> for us, and
> many of them hardly knew anything about Italy. These things are
> not without
> value.
>
> They made mistakes. They bombed, for example, the abbey of Monte
> Cassino, a holy
> ancient monastery. By mistake, they thought that Nazis were
> hidden there. They
> actually killed monks and destroyed a holy monument. And they
> dropped bombs on
> all the cities of Central and Northern Italy, causing the death
> of thousands of
> civil persons. And this is the question. Was it right? I was not
> there, so I
> can't know the feelings of those persons under the bombs. But
> I've listened to
> my father many times to tell about those days. At times, he was
> living in the
> heart of the Bologna, in a tall building were the Nazis had
> installed a radio
> antenna, always defended by a wonderful couple of Doberman dogs.
> The risk of an
> American bomb was huge.
>
> One morning, the Germans were disappeared. They just left there
> the Dobermans.
> Bombs were not falling anymore. He went down to the streets,
> finally crowded,
> and saw the partisans coming from the mountains, while the allies
> were coming
> from the other side. All the soldiers were smiling (the war was
> clearly going to
> end in few weeks). For the first time, my father saw a black man;
> dressed in his
> uniform, he was offering chocolate to all the kids. One can't
> forget this sort
> of things. That's why he was philo American.
>
> After the war, for many years we received gifts from America: food,
> machineries - the Marshall Plan. It has been a decisive
> ingredient for a young
> democracy to resist to communist or nationalist temptations. For
> what I know,
> the Marshall plan has been the best business America ever did in Europe.
>
> This is the story. Was it right to drop bombs on Italy? Yes.
> Almost no one here
> in Italy feels it as a crime. Was it possible to avoid all that?
> Probably yes.
> It was possible to stop Mussolini and Hitler before, but in the
> end there were
> not anymore alternatives. It's like to be in a car without brakes in a
> descending road. You are running and it's too late to cry for the
> mistake. You
> have to drive until you reach the plain. But in the end it's a
> mistake to be
> proud for the war you have won. We should be proud only for avoided wars.
>
> If I try a hazardous parallelism with the Gulf War, and this
> incoming possible
> war that is IMO its consequence, the biggest difference is that
> in those Muslim
> countries they don't see Americans as liberators. Try to imagine
> if Italy had
> suffered bombs, and, in the end, Mussolini was still there,
> almost no American
> had perished personally, and no one had offered chocolate. Be
> sure, the feelings
> for the USA here in Italy could not be the same we know. And
> probably my father
> could not become a philo American.
>
> Thanks for reading
> Marco
>
>
>
>
>
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