Via reader MFG, the Italian government is in full blown panic mode over ISIS’ rapid strides in Libya, on a short distance away from Sicily, Pantellaria, and other Italian domains. Italy at present receives a lot of illegal immigration across the Mediterranean, via Lampedusa and Pantellaria, of Libyan muslims. With that papal-endorsed influx, it would be exceedingly easy for ISIS killing machines to enter Italy and much of Europe. I’d say they have good reason to be concerned, especially given the fact that all of Europe would be hard pressed to put a full mechanized division in the field, even given a year’s warning:
Last weekend in Italy, as the threat of ISIS in Libya hit home with a new video addressed to “the nation signed with the blood of the cross” and the warning, “we are south of Rome,” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi shuttered the Italian embassy in Tripoli and raised his fist with the threat of impending military action. Never mind that Italy has only 5,000 troops available that are even close to deployable, according to the defense ministry. [If you assess them at the level of the US, they probably haven’t got even 500 that are up to speed. “Deployable” usually means “at 90 days notice,” if not 180. All of Europe, with some exception for Britain, have allowed their military capabilities to wither down to essentially nothing.] Or that the military budget was cut by 40 percent two years ago, which has kept the acquisition of 90 F-35 fighter jets hanging in the balance and left the country combat-challenged to lead any mission—especially one against an enemy like the Islamic State.
In fact, Renzi didn’t specify exactly who would wield that military might, and, two days later, when no one volunteered to lead the charge, he backtracked. “It’s not the time for a military intervention,” Renzi told an Italian television station Monday night and said the United Nations had to lead the way. “Our proposal is to wait for the U.N. Security Council. The strength of the U.N. is decidedly superior to that of the radical militias.” [Don’t you bet on it, bub. Wait until they get their hands on some MANPADS and AAA. These guys should not be underestimated…….nor should the appeal of a violent caliphate and unholy jihad has with a very large percentage of muslims]
Whether the time is right or not, there is no question that there is a palpable tension in Italy over the ISIS threat—Libya is just 109 miles away from the island of Lampedusa and 300 miles from Sicily—made worse by a 64 percent increase in illegal migrant arrivals by sea since last year. In all of 2014, more than 170,000 people arrived from Libya and Turkey, the highest number ever recorded. Last weekend, as the embassy staff made their way to Italy on a mercantile ship, 2,164 migrants left the same Libyan shores en route to Sicily. The week before, more than 300 people were lost in the same seas as their rickety fishing boats capsized before rescuers could save them.
Where on earth is the benefit to this unconstrained, mass immigration? Oh yeah……corporate titans want to drive down wages so they can take in another $50 million in their golden stock parachutes. But aside from that, how long are governments going to foster national suicide through this insane immigration procedures? While the presence of muslim radicals in Mexico is a bit speculative, their presence in Libya is not! And yet they continue to accept this mass influx! Doing so reveals more than just a desire to appease those who buy political influence, it reveals something approaching a desire for cultural suicide. But that’s our self-loathing leftist elite for us.