Waiting For The Big Boys

Reports are coming in now that the Italian Government didn’t inform the Americans that Giuliana Sgrena’s rescue car was on its way.

A U.S. military source said yesterday that the "main contributing factor" in the shooting death of Italian agent Nicola Calipari at an American roadblock in Baghdad, Iraq, was Italy's failure to inform U.S. soldiers that it would be bringing a newly released Italian hostage along the road to the airport. [SNIP]

"In my view, the main contributing factor was a lack of prior coordination with the ground unit," the source said. "If requested, we would have resourced and supported this mission very differently."

Even when statements attributable to “sources” confirm things that you suspect, it pays to be skeptical of them. Likely, most of us are waiting with bated breath for official statements regarding the incident from President Bush and, most especially, from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The rest, of course, is mere opinion and speculation (including mine).

In the meantime, Italy says farewell to Nicola Calipari.

"This is a time to pay homage together, without arguments, to the heroic gesture of Nicola Calipari," Mr Letta said in an oblique reference to Rome's diplomatic spat with Washington, and fears over a rising chorus of anti-Americanism on the Italian left, which fiercely opposed the US-led war on Iraq and the subsequent deployment of Italian peacekeepers [sic].

Agreed.

(Thanks to Joe Gandelman)