martedì 26 maggio 2015

War is not a show

Blindo Centauro
If I were a director, Trieste on Sunday would have been the perfect set for a military action movie: plenty of women and children in the main square and around, some men from the East, traditionally dressed, some women wearing headscarves, numerous uniformed soldiers and some military assets: a lightweight attack helicopter (Agusta A129), armed with machine guns, a cannon, anti-tank missiles and/or anti-aircraft rockets (unit cost: over €20 million); a light wheeled armoured fighting vehicle (Puma 6*6), armed with machine guns; a tank destroyer (Blindo Centauro 8*8) equipped with a 105 mm 52 calibre cannon and with two 7.62 mm machine guns (unit cost: over €1.5 million); a mine cleaning robot used by bomb squads within the italian Army, similar to that used in Kathrin Bigelow's movie "The hurt locker".
By adding some special effects and a few Hollywood stars the movie would be done, without too much effort.
But I'm not a movie director and in Trieste the set was not built for a movie, but for a military show, within what was supposed to be a commemoration for Italy's entrance in World War I, but that was actually a great party, which involved thousands of people, enjoying military fitness courses accompanied by very rhythmic music, looking with wonder at the skydivers, collecting information at the stands set up by some military corps, clapping for "bersaglieri" (an infantry unit, that can be recognized by its distinctive wide brimmed hat) and the military band, taking pictures of their kids on the chopper or on the tank.
I asked a friend of mine, who was living in Sarajevo during the siege: "What do you think about all that stuff?" She answered: "I cannot stand it". Personally I cannot stand it too. I've never been under fire but I can imagine what does it mean and I can imagine what the military assets shown in Trieste are for: shooting something or somebody.
All respect due to those soldiers in Trieste on Sunday, who were fulfilling their obligations, let me say that weapons are not toys for kids and war is not a show. Weapons are used to shoot, war is a tragedy. If you don't believe me take a look at what's going on in Syria, where people who are still alive are escaping the war, not celebrating it.
Therefore today there are no winners.

That's all.

p.s. To better understand what was the situation like during the weekend click here.




Puma 6x6
Puma 4x4
Agusta A129
Puma 4x4
Agusta A129
Agusta A129
Agusta A129

Note: pics 4 and 7 were taken in Gorizia the day before, when something similar was going on.


Click here if you want to know something more about the section "And the winner is"

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