[TETENAL]

Italy is withdrawing its troops out of Iraq by september.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4355009.stm

[spacefreak]

Iraq and the Coalition thanks them for their contributions.

[mitchell_pgh]

The statement said that such a plan would depend on the growing ability of the Iraqi government to fulfil the country's security and public order needs.

AKA: We're ready to go home, but aren't going to leave you our to dry...

[Nicko]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
AKA: We're ready to go home, but aren't going to leave you our to dry...

Well, I'm sure the US would pick up the tab.

[budster101]

Italy is NOT pulling out of Iraq. They are making plans to pull out, but not in the immediate future.

Thread done.

[icydanger]

by the end of the summer is immediate future

[SimeyTheLimey]

It's a good idea to keep an eye on stories after they first break. The initially reported story isn't always accurate, and facts change.

Associated Press

ROME -- Many Italians expressed relief when Premier Silvio Berlusconi said he'd start bringing troops home from Iraq in September if the security situation allowed. But when he characterized his intentions as a "hope" -- rather than a firm plan -- in a chat with President Bush, critics accused him of wavering.

Berlusconi insisted Thursday that he never backtracked.

"I did not correct myself over anything. It was a case created by disinformation by a press that has no intellectual honesty," the Apcom and ANSA news agencies quoted the conservative premier as saying.

Italian public opinion is strongly against the war, and pressure to pull out the troops increased after the March 4 killing in Baghdad of an Italian intelligence agent who was escorting a recently released hostage to freedom. The agent was killed by U.S. troops who mistakenly opened fire on his vehicle.

Berlusconi's first announcement on a possible conditional date, made Tuesday evening during a popular political talk show, took many by surprise -- even some of his close political allies, according to Italian media.

Opposition politicians have accused Berlusconi of making the comments with an eye to regional elections on April 3-4 and national elections scheduled for next year.

"Overlap between electoral campaign and diplomacy, political role and international commitments -- this is why there is much to be worried about," leftist lawmaker Enrico Letta said in an interview published in Thursday's edition of the newspaper La Repubblica.

On Tuesday's show, Berlusconi cited public opinion and said he had spoken about the situation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, another of Bush's close allies on Iraq. In line with previous statements by the government ministers, he said a decision "will depend on the capacity of the Iraqi government to provide itself with acceptable security structures."

The premier then wrote a letter to a conservative paper his family partially owns in which he said: "One can start saying, 'Mission accomplished,'" and "Italy can start discussing with Baghdad authorities and coalition allies the possibility of a gradual withdrawal."

In a phone conversation with Bush the next day, Berlusconi expressed "the hope to be able to begin a gradual and progressive withdrawal of the Italian military contingent as soon as possible, possibly in September."

He stressed that any decision would depend on security conditions in Iraq and would be discussed with allies. "I spoke to the American president and I told him: `George, it's all as before,'" ANSA quoted Berlusconi as saying.

Speaking with reporters in Rome later, Berlusconi stressed that a date had never been fixed, and that a September date "was a hope: A withdrawal has to be agreed with the allies."

This seems all a little chaotic -- either because Burlusconi has made conflicting statements, or because the media has reported the story poorly, or a little of both. In any case, it seems clear enough that the Italian troops won't be leaving any earlier than September, and probably much later.

Of course, at some point they will pull out, as will all the foreign troops.

[Anders]

Since Berlusconi own the italian press I think they got his message right the first time...

[Dimethyltrypt]

what a bunch of gun droppers.

there's terrorist scum to be killed, help us.

[finboy]

A frustrated Iraq could not be reached for comment.

[Weyland-Yutani]

Italy under Silvio Berlusconi will do exactly what the United States under Bush orders. Silvio has less spine than hair. He was just talking about removing the italian troops from Iraq to try and recover some lost support with the italian population. Generally the Italians strongly oppose the presence of Italian troops in Iraq and the participation of Italy in the Coalition of the Willing. Bush makes one phonecall and Berlusconi has to explain that he was just doing the old "lie to potential voters" thing and didn't really mean it.

Fortunately one only has to go a few hundred kilometers to the west to find a country that posesses a leader with a spine and stands by his words. Spain.

Zapatero

Additionally: about: "facts change" - by definition facts are unalterable. What is considered or accepted to be a fact can change, not the fact itself.

[SimeyTheLimey]

Originally posted by Weyland-Yutani:
Additionally: about: "facts change" - by definition facts are unalterable. What is considered or accepted to be a fact can change, not the fact itself.

This is an aside, but that is just nonsense. Of course facts can change, they do all the time. Yesterday, it was a fact that it was Thursday. Today, it is not a fact that it is Thursday. It is, however, a fact that it is Friday. But that fact will, in due course, change as well.

The facts of any story can change, and therefore with any news you should check them from time to time to see if they still hold true. Often they do not.

By the way, I have to ask: your sig image. Are you Polish, or a big Purina pet food fan?

[Weyland-Yutani]

Originally posted by SimeyTheLimey:
This is an aside, but that is just nonsense. Of course facts can change, they do all the time. Yesterday, it was a fact that it was Thursday. Today, it is not a fact that it is Thursday. It is, however, a fact that it is Friday. But that fact will, in due course, change as well.

The facts of any story can change, and therefore with any news you should check them from time to time to see if they still hold true. Often they do not.

By the way, I have to ask: your sig image. Are you Polish, or a big Purina pet food fan?

I think it depends how you look at it but it is sound advice to check the news from time to time.