Smelly and Ungrateful

Well, I'll be darned. The Sardinians are ungrateful, too!

Sardinia may be best known as a lush playground for the rich and famous who cavort amid its pristine waters and secluded beaches, but it also plays host to U.S. nuclear submarines and more military installations and activity — American, Italian and NATO — than anywhere else in Italy. Plans to draw down the U.S. military elsewhere in Europe and in the United States do not apply here.

That does not sit well with the man who governs Sardinia and a small but growing movement of activists who say the soldiers and sailors have overstayed their welcome.

"The real issue for us is, after 30 years, we still have an American base here in our archipelago. Is that necessary?" Sardinia's regional president, Renato Soru, said in an interview in Cagliari, the capital city at the opposite end of the island from La Maddalena.

For too long, Soru said, Sardinia has borne the brunt of this military presence, and it's time for other parts of the world to do their share. Moreover, he said, repairing and resupplying nuclear subs in a pristine area of national parks is dangerously inappropriate.

It is not that Sardinians don't like Americans, he insisted. It is a matter of national sovereignty.

"We love American tourists, entrepreneurs, professors…. We are good friends with the U.S.," Soru said. "But would you want a nuclear submarine next to your house?"

National sovereignty? Bull. Sardinia hasn't had national sovereignty in a long, long, long time, and it has nothing to do with American nuclear submarines undergoing repairs.

I could be wrong, I sometimes am, but I think this is nothing more than European snobbery. They don't like being reminded that their countries take no responsibility for national defense, they don't like being reminded of the unpleasant fact that they are indebted to American taxpayers for the maintenance of their national security. And, for some reason, they have an unfounded fear of nuclear power, the safest, cleanest form of energy in history.

And for your information, Mr. Soru, I'd love a nuclear submarine next to my house. I'd swallow my pride and learn how to bake, just so that I could make cookies and brownies and cakes to take over to the sailors every now and again in order to thank them for protecting me. You should try it sometime!

So, let's recap: Berlusconi, good. Most other Italians: mixed bag, some really good, others filthy hippies. Italians like Renato Soru: very, very bad.

Ingrates.