this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
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Italy denied U.S. military aircraft headed for the Middle East permission to land at its Sigonella air base in Sicily, according to local reports.

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[–] GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 hours ago

Italy is often a weak link in an axis

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 25 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

True story: When France refused to let us fly through their airspace during the Iraq War, the Congressional Cafeteria changed the name of French Fries to Freedom Fries.

So I guess we'll be seeing Freedom Dressing on the Congressional Cafeteria salad bar.

[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 21 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

So childish. Without France, the USA would not exist.

[–] fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 hours ago

You say that like people in the US learnt history in schools...

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 15 points 5 hours ago

Americans like to pretend that France owes us for WW2, but if the French Navy hadn't shown up at Yorktown, and blocked the British ships from evacuating their army (again), we'd all be speaking...English...well, you know what I mean.

We 100% owe the founding of our company to France.

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 35 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

AFAIK both Spain and France have completely denied access to their airspace for war related efforts. So flights departing from the UK after a refuel are going to have to do one hell of a detour to get to destination. And now, Italy denies bases use too.

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 hours ago

Germany needs to deny them access too, but that probably won't happen.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 18 points 7 hours ago

Wish Starmer had the balls to do the same...

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 9 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Turns out it helps to at least have a coalition of the doesn't give a shit before you start a war you can't win 7000 miles away.

[–] gukleszl4hs48ughgxhr5xgd@fedia.io 76 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

The decision was reportedly made by Italy's defense minister Guido Crosetto, who was left stranded in the Middle East as the war kicked off. Crosetto said on March 1 that he was being evacuated from Dubai by military aircraft after he had traveled to the region for a family vacation.

lol

[–] neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works 14 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Late stage self-awareness, is still self-awareness.

[–] limonfiesta@lemmy.world 15 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It's the Italian bureaucracy, I think it's safe to assume pettiness is the chief motivating factor here.

I'll take it, don't get me wrong, but let's not get it twisted.

That's a fair call out.

[–] merdaverse@lemmy.zip 10 points 6 hours ago

It was pretty funny when that happened. We were hoping they'd keep him.

[–] clauandr 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

It's just a formality, they didn't ask so the government uses it as cheap propaganda to gain consensus after the justice referendum debacle. Meanwhile from Aviano jets are regularly taking off.

[–] akmur@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Yea think so too (I'm Italian)

[–] blindpuskas@piefed.world 83 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It is good to see that Spain is not the only one taking part and making statements in Europe, regardless of the ruling ideology.

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 11 points 9 hours ago

Maybe that ideology is declining already...

[–] Exeous@lemmy.world 10 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

They ask permission in fly. Why no ask before leave?

[–] Mangoholic@lemmy.ml 11 points 6 hours ago

Because their arrogance expected unconditional support.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 22 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

What the actual fuck? Why are literal fascists doing anti-imperialism again?

[–] Damage@feddit.it 24 points 7 hours ago

Because they've recently lost a huge referendum about changes to the Constitution, and every channel on TV is talking about government crises and how the right-wing coalition that's currently governing is falling apart, as the referendum vote was seen as a popular no-confidence vote on the current government.

People are pissed, we had huge protests last autumn about the situation in Gaza, in my city it was the biggest one I've ever been to, so this is a bit of a sensitive topic, an easy way to gain back some poll percentages.

[–] Melchior@feddit.org 31 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The decision was made by Crosetto the Italian defense minsiter, who got stuck in Dubai, when the US and Israel attacked. He is also on the moderate wing and from a rich family. Italy is weird that way. As in some members of a party go out a Roman Salute around, while praising Mussolini, and then the next day other members of the party call themself anti fascists and would love a European federation.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

i wonder if that was the only reason for this decision or if they actually thought things through

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Meloni just lost a very important public consultation about criminal law reform…

[–] LemmyBeYourself@lemmy.zip 8 points 9 hours ago (3 children)

what could be the reason? I mean Meloni is the servile ally of Washington

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago

She doesn't want Sicily to attract long range missiles.

US doesn't give a fuck about making other countries targets.

[–] Hiro8811@lemmy.world 17 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

She's Prime Minister not Queen, it's not her decision.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

She's a Fascist. She wants to be Queen.

[–] Hiro8811@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Yeah but she isn't yet which means there's still some part of the system that works

[–] porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 hours ago

Americans minds blown by the thought of not one person having all the power to make any decision unilaterally

[–] Ooops@feddit.org 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Ask her defense minister that was stranded in the middle East on family vacation and had to be evacuated by military plane, just because the US were to stupid to even inform their allies they would randomly start a war there...

[–] Jay101@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Chad Spain always ahead of time.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today -4 points 7 hours ago

So Guido Crussaunt the prime monaster put his hand in the pot before orange pedo dumped boiling water into it? And croissant got the F out in a big hurry? So he knows first hand what's happening and how it feels.

Maybe thats the cure. "Thou shall not use military action unless you personally oversee the action". Pedo orders one tom Cruz missile, the next day he has to go see what it did. Maybe not a bad idea. Maybe he likes picking up body parts. Maybe he doesn't. But at least if he does and tells us its worth it, we'll know his words have meaning.