Parliament's OK will be needed, but the Italian mission in Iraq is already ready. Despite the absolute silence of Palazzo Chigi and the semi-denial of the Defense Ministry, the plan for Italy's intervention in Baghdad was finalized months ago.
The confirmation came from the Prime Minister himself Matteo Renzi who last September 25, at the United Nations General Assembly, recalled that our country has been participating for months in the anti-ISIS coalition made up of 60 nations. Not only, Italy has decided to make its contribution. Four Tornadoes of Ghedi's Sixth Wing so far engaged in reconnaissance missions over Iraqi territory would be ready to bomb. And again: the Italian carabinieri are allegedly carrying out training activities for the Iraqi armed forces and arming the formations of the Pershmerga Kurds.
Italy is therefore ready to intervene in Iraq, but not in Syria. The reason is obvious: while the mission in Baghdad would be justified by requests for help from the government itself, in Syria the intervention would go against the constraints imposed by the Constitution on our armed forces. The government led by Assad has not requested any assistance and intervening in that territory could recreate a "Libya Bis".
The Ministry of Defense led by Roberta Pinotti, for the moment chooses to remain cautious and speaks of "hypothesis to be evaluated together with the allies and not decisions taken which, in any case, will have to pass through Parliament".
As reported by Il Sole 24 Ore, Matteo Renzi has instead chosen to maintain a double line: on the one hand, during the speech he gave in New York he announced Italy's military readiness, on the other he decided to keep Italian public opinion in the dark for the moment, awaiting developments.
Precisely at the UN, the Premier declared his willingness to make at least another 500 men available to the United Nations missions (in addition to the 1100 of the Unifil mission in Lebanon), with a specialized infantry battalion, a construction engineering company and a squadron of transport helicopters.
