That’s how one Coalition officer, in the US after a recent tour in Iraq, described the situation after the deadly attack on the Italian compound in Nassirya. He believes that everything will have to change, since the Coalition forces had previously attempted to avoid offensive actions that risk destabilizing the situation. Instead of actively targeting the many foreign jihadists from countries such as Bahrain and Yemen, the forces have primarily been tracking and monitoring them. Now that the situation has been destabilized despite this restraint, this officer expects that it is now necessary to hit the Sunni triangle hard, while at the same time going after known guerilla fighters in various local hot spots.
He could not talk about the upcoming response, either from the US troops or the Coalition contingents, but he left me with little doubt that it is not only the US troops who are now ready to “kick ass”. My conclusion is that the talk about speeding up the process of turning Iraq over to the Iraqis is not to bring our troops home, but to free them up to move on to the next stage of the war, which is more likely to be in the direction of Iran instead of Syria.
Is this desirable? I am of two minds on the subject, which is why I have written very little about it. But in any case, I believe it is inevitable, as I have ever since the morning of September 11th, 2001.
In ogni caso, gli occhi del mondo piangono per il sacrificio dai giovanotti italiani.