Italy ready for war? What Crosetto, Cavo Dragone, Margelletti and Doctors say
From the head of Defense to the Chief of Defense Staff, through experts and analysts, there is alarm about the situation of the army, military forces, weapons and ammunition.
Italy is not ready for a war.
The number one of the Italian defense, Guido Crosetto, is convinced of this. To the question from Nicola Porro, host of Quarta Repubblica during the March 25 episode : "Are we at an acceptable level of defense from the point of view of armaments, training and military?, was the response of the Minister of Defense who left no room for to doubts or interpretations: “No”. “Do you want the truth? In my opinion, no,” reiterated Crosetto.
The journalist insisted by asking if this statement is "at the level of personnel, ammunition, training, what is it that we are missing?". “If we had suffered an attack like the one Ukraine suffered… I would stop,” Crosetto commented.
Strong statements from the head of defense of our country who has been raising the issue of the "alarming" international geopolitical situation for some time, underlining that his task – after all – "is to prepare the country for the worst scenarios".
And if in Europe there are those who are preparing for a possible conflict with the war economy ( like our neighbor across the Alps ), in Italy the military leaders shine a spotlight on the "absolutely undersized" Italian armed forces for the times that they run.
YOU MUST BE READY FOR ANYTHING FOR MINISTER CROSETTO
“I would prefer not to be worried but the European Union and the States must prefigure any type of scenario”, declared Defense Minister Guido Crosetto today on the sidelines of the ceremony for the '100+1' of the Air Force held at the New competition center in Guidonia.
“I think nothing serious will happen, but we must prepare for the possibility that serious things could happen, as Ukraine taught us, perhaps not directly to our country,” added Crosetto, underlining that “Italy faces the challenge of terrorism in silence for years. Every day the armed forces and police fight terrorism. The State is always there, vigilant; this does not mean that the danger disappears, it means that citizens must know that the State does not notice terrorism only when something happens, as happened in Russia a few days ago".
“Defense is the fundamental prerequisite of democracy and must necessarily also talk about bad things, because there is no possibility of defending oneself without weapons,” the minister said during the ceremony. “In a dramatic moment like this, we remembered that Defense could not just be civil protection 4.0, the world can change and this is a period that no one hoped for. But we never gave up. Many of our fellow citizens had forgotten about the existence of ISIS, not us who fight it in Iraq and Kuwait. The provocations have been going on for over two years at European borders. We are here to defend the country, even when no one remembers the danger. Our greatest success is tranquility which however requires constant commitment, sacrifice, preparation and investment".
NO TO COMPULSORY DRAFT
At the same time, the Minister of Defense specified that despite the current scenario "There has never been talk of compulsory military service in the country". “We live in difficult times, in which, if anything, we need many professionals. We must rather think about the number of these", explained Crosetto, adding: "We need trained professionals, not citizens who do a year of military service".
THE CHANGED SCENARIO OUTLINED BY THE CHIEF OF DEFENSE STAFF
Regarding the new geopolitical context, the Chief of the Defense General Staff, Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, also expressed his opinion just yesterday during a hearing at the joint Foreign Affairs and Defense Commissions of the Chamber and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Commission of the Senate. “If we put together the crisis in the Strait of Aden, the evolution of the geopolitical scenario from Sudan to the Sahel, up to West Africa and the Great Lakes region, we see a band of instability taking shape that threatens Europe, in able to influence trade flows, migratory movements and energy supplies", explained Cavo Dragone. “The latest developments have led NATO to review both its force model and its defense plans” added Cavo Dragone.
The complexity of the current geopolitical scenario, as well as threats to international security, are at the origin of the deployment of the Italian Armed Forces abroad. This was said by the Chief of the Defense Staff, Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, during a hearing at the joint Foreign and Defense Committees of the Chamber and the Foreign and Defense Committee of the Senate. “The operational dimension is unprecedented since the post-war period: from the Baltic countries, along the entire eastern flank of NATO, from the Middle East to the Horn of Africa, from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Guinea passing through the Sahel”, stated Cavo Dragone, illustrating that “Consistent with our belonging to the Euro-Atlantic perimeter, Defense ensures a significant contribution to 9 NATO, 8 European Union and 5 United Nations missions; 14 initiatives are instead conducted within specific coalitions or on a bilateral basis".
INSUFFICIENT ARMED FORCES
And there is no need to hypothesize the worst scenario of a conflict in Europe to draw a negative assessment of the state of the Italian armed forces.
Only on the basis of the current commitments of the Defense is the size of the forces insufficient: "Today we are absolutely undersized: 150 thousand is unthinkable, 160 thousand which is what was approved for us is still little and 170 thousand is the limit of survival" highlighted the Chief of the Defense General Staff. “The Di Paola law of 2102 occurred in a different context, the commitments and threats have changed”.
“When I think about the situation I put my hands in my hair. In the army – Cavo Dragone recalled – we have grueling shifts. Times have changed, threats have changed, and our commitment is increasingly massive. We want a European defense, and this will require a lot of us. I applied for more men. I will continue to ask for them until they kick me out” concluded Cavo Dragone.
MILITARY CLASH IS COMING IN EUROPE ACCORDING TO MARGELETTI
Although, the worst case scenario seems closer than ever.
“My feeling, as President of the Center for International Studies, is that we will have a military clash in Europe in some time – observed the prof. Andrea Margelletti in an interview given today to Policy Maker – The Russians have no interest, no desire, no desire, to open a political dialogue with the West, because, otherwise, it would be very simple: stop the fighting and withdraw. Given that this does not happen and that the Russians continue to repeat, like a mantra, that they are fighting for the denazification, the demilitarization of the territories, there is no room for negotiation", continued Margelletti.
AN EU COMMISSIONER FOR DEFENSE IS NECESSARY
And in light of this scenario, “I believe that – explained the president of Cesi – Europe will have to do much more to take care of its own defence. Which means bilateral or multilateral contributions between the various layers. The European army, the European armed forces expect there to be European governance. But without a European President, without a European Foreign Minister, without a European Defense Minister, what governance are we talking about? Furthermore, I believe that we should do a very serious reflection and recognize that it is time to establish the role of Defense Commissioner within the European Commission. That way we would really start to synchronize efforts in defense and the defense industry because we need it.”
IT'S TIME TO GET READY
In fact, for Professor Margelletti there is no doubt: “We are going to war, this is my feeling. And not because we want it,” he explained to PolicyMaker , “but because it seems to be inevitable from the attitudes of the Russians. It worries me a lot, however, when I hear it's not the time to talk about war. This means that we are not psychologically and structurally prepared for a possible conflict. Remember that yesterday the defense minister Crosetto said that we are not prepared. The fact that we are not prepared means that we must prepare. The first step to solving a problem is to recognize its existence” concluded the president of the Center for International Studies.
A NEW HISTORICAL PHASE
However, according to Germano Dottori, geopolitical analyst and scientific advisor to Limes , "of all the Italian state administrations, Defense is the one that seems to have the clearest perception of the change taking place in this historical phase. Although the Farnesina staff follows with great attention what is happening in the world, the military have in fact been the first to grasp some essential features of the ongoing change", he wrote in the latest issue of the magazine directed by Lucio Caracciolo.
“Precisely for this reason it would have been necessary to equip ourselves in advance, with the aim of delivering to the nation a military instrument capable of dealing alone or with some regional ally every kind of crisis below the scenario of world war between superpowers, i.e. the one described by article 5 of the Atlantic Pact relating to mutual collective defence” continues Dottori, admitting: “Of course, money is scarce and consensus regarding the increase in Italian military spending is still low”.
“But it's not just a question of armaments. The conflicts in which the Great War is unfolding are doing justice to an illusion in which we were lulled for a long time after the end of the Cold War. Contemporary combat consumes large quantities of ammunition and requires quantities of personnel incompatible with the defense models that we have progressively equipped ourselves with after the collapse of the Berlin Wall", added the expert on Limes .
“CHANGE MENTALITY”
“In any case, we navigate with objectives on the horizon that are not immediately achievable. The translation of military planning into real additional capabilities requires a long period of time, a circumstance that escapes most non-experts. The tool we have was imagined ten-fifteen years ago, and today we are building the path that will define the Armed Forces of the Thirties and Forties of this century" continues Dottori.
“Changing the mentality of a system and the political-strategic culture of our country, ultimately, will be an even longer, more complex and uncertain process, unless a major shock occurs. Especially for us Italians, among whom the temptation has already emerged to transfer as soon as possible the delegation to protect us exercised by the United States, which no longer wants to assume this responsibility, to a Europe in which it will be difficult to find interlocutors more sensitive than us to the safeguarding our national interests,” concluded Limes ' scientific advisor.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/italia-pronta-alla-guerra-cosa-dicono-crosetto-cavo-dragone-margelletti-e-dottori/ on Wed, 27 Mar 2024 15:51:45 +0000.