Recommended this month:
« Moderates, Mestizos, and the Centre Ground. | Main | Mestizo Nation - It's all gone Pear shaped. »
August 24, 2005
Funding Humanitarian Actions in Iraq
Those left-wing, pinko-liberals will tell you that Italy's military presence in Iraq [about 3,150 personnel] is part of an illegal occupation force. They'll tell you that it's all about oil, or somesuch [the Italians just happen to be based in the Nassiriyah area, securing an area with a gigantic oil field for which the Italian government secured a deal in 1997].
They just don't listen though, these pinkos. The Italian force in Iraq is there to support peace and democracy, and is a humanitarian force [which according to figures from the Iraq Body Count has killed at least 24 civilians]. Confirmation of this has come in the unexpected guise of the budget figures for the operation.
The operation has thus far cost the Italian tax payers an estimated €1,300,000,000, or an annual bill of €500,000,000 (calm down, don't you realise the Nassiriyah oil deal is worth a purported €300,000,000,000?). Of that money, about €80 million each year comes from the "8 per thousand" tax scheme where Italians can earmark part of their taxes to go to charitable/humanitarian works managed by either recognised religions or the State.
The tax regulation introduced in 1985 foresaw funds from citizens destined for the State being used to alleviate famine in the world, to protect against natural disasters, to assist refugees, and to conserve heritage.
In the budget of 2004, 80 million out of the 100 million Euros designated by the State to this scheme were allocated to security forces and Italian troops involved in 'humanitarian missions'.
Posted by 3Monkeys at
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/208
Comments
Your commnent is disingenuous at best, pathetic at worst. You seeem to conveniently forget the context, the background, the history, the general circumstances, the aims and goals of the war in Iraq...and everything that is critical when examining the illegal and immoral invasion of that country.
Would you have supported sending "humanitarian" military aid to "improve" the life conditions of people in Stalingrad, or any other devastated area of Europe, during the Nazi expansionist war of aggression?
Who knows? Maybe you would have?
Posted by: Miguel Baraona at September 9, 2005 05:52 PM