Berlusconi: "I knew the war was a bad idea ..." [View All]

[weldon_berger]

You can almost hear the guy shouting, "Prepare to come about!" Silvio Berlusconi has been the most slavish Bush devotee in Europe second only to Tony Blair, and he swears he'll stay the course, but:

In a speech Friday, Premier Silvio Berlusconi defended his government's decision to send troops but said he had been opposed to the war and tried to persuade President Bush to change his mind. During the conflict, Berlusconi was a staunch ally of the U.S. administration.

"I didn't support every action of the United States. I tried to persuade them not to intervene militarily," Berlusconi said during a meeting in Brussels, Belgium. "But when I saw there was no way (to prevent it), I stood by the United States."

He says the Wednesday suicide bombing in southern Iraq won't shake Italy's resolve, but I expect that'll only last until Italy's resolve is shaken. At which point Silvio will be too busy to come to the phone.

The bombing did sufficiently creep out Japan and South Korea to the point where the former postponed its promised troop deployment indefinitely, and the latter lopped its commitment by two thirds. Friendly fire is coming from everywhere.