It was not the clappers of the bells of San Carlino, the church on the Quattro Fontane in Rome which runs alongside the former Ministry of War, that woke up Palazzo Baracchini, the headquarters of the Italian Defense, on Sunday. When the supreme command of star communication spreads via chat the Sunday newspaper "slap from the Minister of Defense to Sardinia", published yesterday by the Sardinian Union, the military reaction even anticipates Pope Francis' Angelus Domini. The statement is anonymous, but the sender is naked: Ministry of Defense.
They preferred silence
In the palaces of Rome they didn't like it. The publication in our newspaper of the peremptory and orderly letter-decree , signed by the number one of the Armed Forces, destined to remain locked in the drawers of the Region and the island prefectures, ruined the Roman Sunday of the "ordinary time" of the military leaders. That "communication" signed by Guido Crosetto, pro tempore Minister of Defense, was formulated in such a way as not to go outside the confidential protocols of the recipients. The choice had been thought out in every detail: no decree to avoid too much publicity and explicit references to the laws of the Italian State regarding the challenge of administrative acts.
The slap of the Defense
In reality, that letter marked with the State seals was a real slap in the face to the Sardinian Region and to the Joint Joint Committee which had rejected the program of exercises on Sardinian soil scheduled for the second half of 2023. Not an ideological or generic rejection, but, if anything, an acknowledgment of a profoundly changed environmental, criminal and constitutional scenario. Considerations that the Minister, in that communication of August 1st, not only ignores, but which, with the imperium of the "established power", overturns with the perennial excuse of the "superior interests of the State". It matters little if that supreme interest tramples on the environment, human health, constitutional provisions and even criminal trials that have already begun. A sort of "absolute power" expressed without any hesitation, the stuff of a "master father" in Sardinia.
Before the Angelus
The reaction of the Minister of Defense on Sunday is in itself confirmation of the exposed nerve. And how could it be otherwise given that five Chiefs of Staff of the Defense and Army are on trial not for a parking ban, but for an environmental disaster right on the Teulada range. Not recruits, but the number one of the Italian Defense: the generals Giuseppe Valotto, Danilo Errico, Domenico Rossi, Sandro Santroni and Claudio Graziano, former head of the military committee of the European Union, and now President of none other than Fincantieri, the war industry par excellence. The Ministry's statement not only confirms what was published by our newspaper, but reiterates the objective of transforming Sardinia into a real logistical base for war games. They make no secret of it already from the title of the "starred" note which, complete with an asterisk, they send to our editorial team's emails before Pope Francis' appearance in St. Peter's Square: «*Defense: Sardinia, central role for the development of the country . Key territory for investments in the Defense sector*".
Paternals & prebends
The military speech unfolds between omissions, state lectures and even money to be given to the populations in exchange for the "sacrifice". The communication manual imposed on graduates is a cliché that has been known in Sardinia for some time. The ministry writes: «The current strategic framework does not allow us to think in terms of reductions in the training activities of the Armed Forces. Defense ensures and will ensure, however, every possible contribution for the sustainable development of the Sardinia Region through further investments aimed at increasing scientific research, technological development, innovation, even in a dual key, as well as industrial and civil development programs, therefore not only military, demonstrating the centrality that Sardinia has in the development of the country." Imagine if they didn't squeeze in a bit of scientific research, a bit of civil development and even the centrality of the Island. For now, and for some time, the only certainty is the centrality of the Island in the most nefarious and devastating war games, with land and sea strewn with bombs and missiles, many missing, as evidenced by the orders of the Captaincies which preclude large tracts of body of water for the discovery of unexploded bombs in the middle of the sea and on the coast.
Committee ignored
Like no one else would be able to do, the Ministry's communications leaders sweeten the facts. Faced with the joint Joint Committee's clear rejection of the exercise programme, they go so far as to write that the regional body "did not agree". Despite the decision of the Sardinian Committee for Military Easements, which Crosetto & Generali don't care about, the ministry's statement makes a bold display of the most evanescent politician: «the Defense has received the sensitivity expressed by Co.Mi.Pa. renewing the sector's maximum availability to welcome every convocation of the descending thematic technical tables that the Regional bodies wish to promote, continuing in this synergistic and profitable path of inter-ministerial and interdisciplinary development which allows us to preserve national training capabilities".
Low cost tables
A state availability that not only declares to incorporate "sensitivity", but is transformed into an allegorical reference to the "Ikea method": a table is not denied to anyone. If we were to account for the "open" tables in recent years for "reclamation" never carried out, for regulations on the use of the range always covered by state secrecy, or for random and propagandistic transfers of beaches and umbrellas, we could easily compete with Swedish low-cost furniture factory. There is worse, however, in the state statement. Crosetto and graduates add: «And this in full compliance with the regulations and maximizing the positive effects on the splendid territory of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia». Come on, it really takes a lot of courage to talk about respect for the rules and even positive consequences. It is written in the documents of the Teulada trial that that range is an objective perennial crime, for an elementary reference to the regulations in force: both Teulada, Quirra and Capo Frasca fall entirely within natural oases protected by state and European laws and from 2022 also by a regulation constitutional that puts environmental value before everything, including war games.
Forgetful on trial
With the Sunday "verb" of Defense, the military leaders even go so far as to praise the "splendid territory of Sardinia", forgetting, or attempting to do so, that the trial on January 25th at the Court of Cagliari will be celebrated with one indictment explicit and without mitigating circumstances: environmental disaster caused by the explosion of 860 thousand shots, with 11,875 missiles, equal to 556 tons of war material. Far from being a "splendid territory", if anything a naturalistic oasis devastated with impunity by bombs and missiles that demolished the coast, destroyed nuraghi and scattered lethal radioactive thorium here and there. The ministry's statement is shameless: «Defence collaborates daily with the Sardinia Region in order to identify concrete solutions for the conduct of military activities in a framework of harmonious development with civil society, respectful of the environment, health and life daily lives of populations particularly dear to us." So "expensive" that the judges rejected the requests for dismissal due to the possible devastating consequences of those exercises on human health.
State concessions
The state note could only end with the "amazing concession" of the "suspension of exercises from the first to the 30th of September of each year, as well as during the Easter and Christmas holidays". In short, no bombs at Christmas. As if they were granting "their stuff", the Defense leaders add further "kind" concessions: «the summer opening to all citizens of the beaches, located near the Teulada and San Lorenzo range, the transfer to the Municipality of Teulada of the Tramatzu port beach with related appurtenances". It's a shame that in that letter-decree there is nothing written about the environment and reclamation. And between institutions, until proven otherwise, there is no dialogue with posthumous, useless and late printed notes.
Occasional transparency
The transparency of the Ministry of Defense would have been decidedly more credible if last August 1st, with a simple communication on yet another state imposition, it had announced: Minister Crosetto, ignoring the decisions of the Sardinian Committee for Military Easements, has decided to continue bombing Sardinia. And now a real institutional war is unleashed over that decision. After the publication of the ministerial letter in our newspaper, the Sardinian component of Co.Mi.Pa launched a very harsh attack on the Minister. The words are explicit: «A strong protest is expressed for the decision of the Minister of Defense to ignore the requests raised in the context of the contrary opinion expressed by the regional body».
Challenge the authorization
As regards «the fulfillment of the missions assigned both in the national and international context, the regional component believes that this burden cannot today fall almost exclusively on Sardinia and the Sardinians». And again: «Fire exercises are in conflict with community directives on respect for the environment in the SIC (Site of Community Interest) area». The response on the ministerial "gifts" is also very harsh: «The compensation and compensation that are paid represent the minimum due to the territories where the Sardinian firing ranges fall, for which it cannot be demonstrated that in the absence of the military presence, they would not have had other and better ones economic outlets, as recent studies by the University of Cagliari have shown." Finally, the declaration of war: «The regional component of Co.Mi.Pa. hopes that the Presidency of the Region will challenge the measure of the Minister of Defense before the TAR". In short, the request is loud and clear: react and not succumb to the state diktat.
