It has always been said that truth is the first casualty of war, and so it remains – perhaps more than ever.
What is particular now is that our own media are participating in a war against Trump’s USA, in which the coverage of the Iran war is also used for all it is worth.
In that regard, it is also of interest to attempt to create an impression that Trump has fewer friends in Europe than he actually has. It is particularly interesting if it is possible to damage Trump’s good relationship with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
NTB reported on Tuesday that Italy a few days ago refused to allow an “American aircraft” en route to the Middle East to make a stopover in Sicily, and cites Corriere della Sera on the matter. It was thus a bomber, and it wished to land at the Sigonella base not far from Catania.
The Italian newspaper writes that the decision was taken a few days ago following a request from an American aircraft already in the air. The landing had not been diplomatically clarified between the countries in advance.
No, but then perhaps the government could simply have granted permission on the spot if it had wished to? one might think.
The refusal of landing is spun by an Italian journalist in the service of the deep state as something more than it is, and NTB follows up:
The decision may increase tensions between the USA and Italy, the newspaper writes. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that after the Iran war the USA may reconsider its relationship with the other countries in the defence alliance NATO.
The opportunity is used to create an association intended to give the impression that there is in reality no significant difference between Giorgia Meloni’s Italy and Pedro Sanchez’s Spain as regards relations with Trump’s USA:
Yesterday Spain announced that its airspace is closed to American aircraft participating in the war against Iran. Spain’s government has been among Europe’s most critical of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza and is also strongly critical of the war against
But NTB omits to explain why Italy could not grant landing permission on the spot, as Defence Minister Guido Crosetto has done.
There are in fact treaties and protocols that regulate how military personnel from allied countries may operate in Italy, and matters not covered in such legal sources cannot be decided by the government on its own – it must then proceed via parliament. And there is naturally no time to proceed via parliament when an aircraft already in the air requests permission to land.
For the Italian government, which has a strongly Trump-hostile opposition, cutting corners in such a matter would give rise to major problems. And even though Crosetto did what he had to do, the Democratic Party (PD) and the Five Star Movement (M5S) wish to make the request into a political issue, preferably with a view to damaging the good relationship between Trump and Meloni.
From the left, via an allied Italian journalist, and on to NTB runs a narrative that seeks to convince European public opinion that it would be best if all countries in Europe distanced themselves from the USA and Trump.
It is an entirely ordinary day at work in that industry, but the public should not allow itself to be deceived.