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America's impending war in Iraq has dominated virtually every conversation that I've had since arriving in Rome. The Italians see no sense in it. I'm no help. Neither do I. | |
| My first trip to Rome was very much shaded by the attack against the Twin Towers. The Italians, who love America and its people, were both sympathethic and empathetic. Now, they talk of the three million people who came out in February to la manifestazione -- the anti-war protest -- here in Rome. We are against war, they tell me. Contro la guerra not contro America. On the streets, in the cafes, on the trains, I hear them talking about la guerra and President Bush (pronounced Boosh here). I listen regularly to the BBC World News Service on my shortwave radio. When Dubya utters things like "those fellas" and goes on the air to say that people at the UN have to "show their cards" -- it strikes me how awkwardly that translates. Show their cards? Even the English presenters at the BBC used other words to characterize the phrase. From this distant perspective, I am able to see how people's feelings about the war simply reflect their nation's self interests. And the level of propaganda. For. Or, against the war. | ||