a few notes about the italian job

or should i say, botched italian job. this refers to the post on New Sisyphus that i quoted earlier. i've been wandering around reading what i can about that whole lashup, and NS does a good job of trying to put the whole response in europe in perspective.
while i was cruising, i came across this
BBC report that appears to actually be fairly written, for a change. no u.s. bashing. what a concept. as a matter of fact, they seem intent on showing both sides of this imbroglio.

Gen Marioli's version, as reported by the papers, also contradicts a reconstruction by the Italian government and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who said the US military had been advised that Ms Sgrena was on board the car.

and

Italian media have been speculating that Italy might have deliberately kept the mission wrapped in secrecy because the US did not approve of the ongoing negotiations with the kidnappers.

to put this quote in perspective, the italians have paid out over 6 million dollars in ransom. read NS's analysis. it's worth the trip over there.

it's a shame that the kids doing their jobs are now under investigation for something that was not their fault. dump on the lowest participants is a typical modern military reaction. i don't know why, other than if the "weakest" in the chain of events gets slammed, the others hope the attention gets diverted from them.
speaking of that, whatever happened to that young marine that popped the "wounded" iraq in falluga several months ago. that kid should have gotten a letter of commendation for doing his job right, not slapped around by a military frightened by the glare of media lights.

i know that a lot of what has been said about this whole affair is getting stale, since in the blogosphere, any story older than about 5 minutes is passe. but i'd like to direct your attention to a post by the idaho bubblehead for a well written and reasoned exposition on this subject. even if he posted it days ago.