The encrypted message of the on-board server has the classification code 50049. The disposition is of the Higher Command of Logistics. When the teletypewriter on the command bridge beats him, letter after letter, the "San Marco", the landing ship of the Italian Navy, in charge of the famous battalion, is moored with all its intrusiveness at the Ichnusa Pier of the Port of Cagliari, that initially intended for cruise ships. The gigantic war "transatlantic" has just taken the place of the "Meteoro", the patrol boat of the Armada Española who had already left the Cagliari port on Saturday to gain a position in one of the 17 areas outside the military polygons on the coasts of the island. The turret of a submarine now overlooks what was once the Luna Rossa dock. Black black, as befits the "ships" of the abyss.
Port of war
The entire port of the capital is littered with warships. Everywhere, from the “Garibaldi” aircraft carrier to other attack units by sea. The immense “belly” of the “San Marco” “swallowed up” in a single stroke 350 soldiers from the landing troops, 36 armored combat vehicles and dozens of other military vehicles. All just arrived in port after having crossed the state road 554 with an infinite marching column. When the loading phase is completed, the Command orders the long-awaited "free all". All this until Sunday afternoon. After all, the “liberate Cagliari” operation had planned the detachment of the peaks from the bollards shortly after dawn yesterday. On Sunday afternoon, however, everything jumps, despite most of the men, especially those of the "San Marco", located in the most central pier, had planned not only the evening in the streets of the Marina, but also a detour to the Cagliari match with Inter, in Sant'Elia which became a scaffolding arena. No way.
Behind the front, we set sail
Behind the front, unexpected and immediate. Superior provisions. The decision takes place on Sunday afternoon, when that encrypted phonogram has already bounced from one command to another of the ships stationed in the Gulf of Angels. The "San Marco", the "Garibaldi" ship moored at Molo Rinascita, the "San Giusto" and the "Alpino", moored in the defunct Porto Canale, the "Alghero" and the "Tremiti" receive the alert. The message identifier reports the information received directly from the defense management. The object is explicit: «Antimilitarist demonstration». The content is complete: «This morning I received information from the Cagliari Police Headquarters of an imminent anti-militarist demonstration in the Port of Cagliari in the area facing the Ichnusa Pier, in the vicinity of the moored naval units, organized by a local anti-militarist group. Stop". As if to say, the war "parade" in the heart of Cagliari was about to be "disturbed" by a local anti-militarist group. The Ministry of Defense, as careful as ever to take care of military magnificence and grandeur, could not help but arrange for the immediate nocturnal "escape" from the Port of Cagliari. It was at that point that all the men of the crew and of the amphibious landing were recalled with "utmost" urgency on board. The tugs and pilots of the port, in a flash, had to change the arrangements and arrange a "quick" operation of "all sail", with a sudden overload of work, since everything had been planned and arranged for the next day. With the lights off, despite the tugboats traveling with the floodlights leveled, the warships leave the port just before the final whistle at the Sant'Elia arena. They don't go very far, however. To spend the night they stand out in the harbor, with the backlight of a full moon that frames them without delay, between one tanker and another. Until yesterday morning, when, then, the vehicles resumed the established route towards the forbidden peninsula, from Porto Scudo to Cala Zafferano, the most exclusive beaches of Capo Teulada, strictly forbidden to anyone, but not to NATO assault vehicles. It is here in this scenario, dotted with dozens of warships that seem to trace the route of Sant'Efis a mare, that the most "bloody" phase of war games is expected. As if the historic operation Neptune, the code name of the Normandy landings, one of the most impressive amphibious invasions in history, were to be repeated in the land of Sardinia. At the time, however, the western allied forces were managing the landing on the French coasts, intending to open a front opposite to the eastern one where the Red Army had been facing the Nazis for some time. Now, as 78 years ago, this time on the Sardinian beaches, there will be a massive air-naval bombardment on the coast, against the promontory of that Delta Peninsula, banned due to those 860 thousand shots exploded against nature, as if the Court's investigation of Cagliari for environmental disaster belonged to another state. Only then will the amphibious assault ships trigger the invasion of the Sardinian coast. It is a pity, however, that 8 decades have passed since that military "strategy". After all, even engaging with no little imagination, it is not easy to hypothesize a war scenario where Italian or NATO troops can carry out such an amphibious landing. A deployment of forces, in the past years 21 ships, this time 65, which confirms an enormous outlay of public money to support military strategies as old as the cuckoo, still linked to the “cinematographic” myth of the Normandy landings. The reality is that this military "structure" is profoundly linked to the war industries which, in order to survive, or rather to earn large amounts, need to be "funded" by wars or exercises. All this despite the world scenarios have profoundly changed, from technologies to approaches to Defense. In Teulada, on the other hand, as if it were a reunion from the Second World War, a "connotation of projection" is being prepared, as the internal note of the Defense makes explicit, "supported by the presence of a landing force made up of over 350 riflemen from the Marina San Marco Brigade and integrated by a company of Lagunari of the Italian Army and two of the Spanish Landing Force ». Medieval defense stuff.
Bombs & umbrellas
In support of this "parade" by sea, between umbrellas already deployed and Sardinia in the "Hannibal" version for a summer heat wave that exceeds 30 degrees, there will, however, also be the F-35 B, latest generation capable of taking off in a very confined space and landing vertically. Where to experience them if not in Sardinia? The cost of each F35 is 106 million euros, but Italy plans to spend a total of 14 billion to buy 90. There are only two austere questions left, still unanswered in the papers and in the billionaire budgets of the Ministry of Defense. The first: how much has been allocated to reclaim the Sardinian lands devastated by these military exercises to the sound of bombs and missiles against the coasts of the island? Second: assuming a surreal scenario, what are Sardinia's real defense capabilities after having exposed it as an international target thanks to these massive exercises? Will a Normandy-style landing be enough? And, not to be excessively indiscreet, where do you intend to "land" to defend the Nuraghi Island? So, just to know.