Italians join Brits, Spaniards and Poles as loyal, trustworthy American allies

Italian Troops to Head for Iraq

(Source: Voice of America news issued July 25, 2003)

The Italian parliament agreed to send up to 3,000 soldiers to support American forces in Iraq in a sign of strengthening ties after Prime Minister Berlusconi’s visit to U.S. President Bush’s ranch this week.

When Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi hopped off a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter at George Bush’s Crawford Texas ranch early this week and was greeted warmly by a cowboy-booted U.S. President, nobody expected the visit to be just limited to an exchange of niceties.

As one of the few European leaders who placed himself squarely on the side of the U.S. in the tense run-up to the Iraq war, Berlusconi enjoys special status with Bush. Last week the Italian premier joined a select group of world leaders such as Britain’s Tony Blair and Spain’s Jose Maria Aznar (both of whom supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq) who have stayed at the U.S. president’s Crawford Texas ranch and the Camp David retreat in Maryland.

It was clear that hosting Berlusconi and giving him the red-carpet treatment was a chance for the White House to repay him by giving him a chance to show he has direct access to the world’s only superpower.