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Italy blames US ‘war on terror’ for current violence

Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy (Photo by AP)

Italy says Washington’s so-called war on terror, which was launched in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks of 2001, is to blame for the current global wave of terrorism.

“We are still paying, after 15 years, the consequences of what was supposed to be a lightning war to eliminate the terrorist threat,” Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy said.

The comment came in a letter published in Corriere della Sera daily published on Wednesday, responding to an editorial that suggested Rome should not have rejected France’s call to join the US-led coalition that allegedly bombs the positions of Daesh Takfiri terror group in Iraq and Syria.

Since September 2014, the United States military, along with some of its allies, has been conducting combat sorties against what are said to be Daesh positions inside Syria, without any authorization from the government in Damascus or a UN mandate. 

The campaign in Syria is an extension of a similar series of military operations against the same purported positions in Iraq, which started in August 2014. The mission in both countries, however, has fallen severely short of dislodging the terrorists.

In this file photo, Daesh Takfiri terrorists are shown parading in Tal Abyad, northern province of Raqqah, Syria.

Gentiloni said overcoming terrorism would take more than one generation and that military action could only have a limited part in achieving such an objective.

“I do not have any time for sociological interpretations but I have less time for those who still preach that the challenge we have in front of us can be addressed by a few brilliant military actions,” he wrote.

Gentiloni’s letter echoed recent remarks made by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who said Western countries would not achieve anything via “gut, instinctive or kneejerk” reactions to atrocities such as the November 2015 attacks in Paris, where 130 people died and hundreds more were injured. Daesh claimed responsibility for the carnage.

The Italian premier called for combating radicalization among the youth in Europe to become a priority.

The September 11, 2001 acts of terror, also known as the 9/11 attacks, were a series of strikes in the US which killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about USD 10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage.

A man standing in rubble shouts to see if anyone needs help after the collapse of the first World Trade Center Tower in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. (AFP photo)

US officials claim that the attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda terrorists, but many experts have raised questions about the official account. They believe that rogue elements within the US government, such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, orchestrated, or at least encouraged, the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.


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