AXIS POWERS Reforming by out2theblack

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AXIS POWERS Reforming

POSTED BY: OUT2THEBLACK
UPDATED: Monday, August 17, 2009 00:27
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Saturday, August 15, 2009 7:21 AM

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14754

'...A press report on August 10 revealed that the government of Italy is planning to modify if not dispense with its post-World War II constitutional limitations on conducting offensive military operations; that is, to reverse a 61-year ban on waging war.

The news story, reminding readers that "Italy's post-World War II constitution places stringent limits on the country's military engagements," stated the Italian government intends to introduce a new military code "specifically for missions abroad," one that - in a demonstration of evasiveness and verbal legerdemain alike - would be "neither of peace nor of war." [1]

On August 10 and 11, respectively, the nation's Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini were interviewed in the daily Corriere della Sera in in tandem they bemoaned what they described as undue restrictions on the Italian armed forces in performing their combat roles in NATO's war in Afghanistan.

Commenting on La Russa's and Frattini's assertions, another news account summarized them as follows:

"Italy's 2,800 soldiers operate under a military peace code, which largely restricts them to shooting back if they are attacked. Changes could give the troops heavier equipment and allow them to go on the offensive."

Frattini is quoted as saying, "We need a code for the missions that aim to bring peace, which cannot be achieved only through actions for civilians but also through real military actions." [2]

The tortuous illogicality of that claim is an attempt to circumvent both the letter and the spirit of Article 11 of the 1948 Italian Constitution which reads in part that "Italy repudiates war as an instrument offending the liberty of the peoples and as a means for settling international disputes."

The rest of the Article includes, and in doing so anticipates the nation's inclusion in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization the following year, "it agrees to limitations of sovereignty...."

Article 11 is emblematic of similar ones in the post-World War II constitutions adopted by, or rather imposed on, those powers responsible for unleashing history's deadliest war in Europe and Asia: The members of the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis or Tripartite Pact.

The 1949 Constitution of the Federal Republic, amended and extended to all of the country after unification in 1990, contains a Ban on preparing a war of aggression, Article 26, which reads: Activities tending and undertaken with the intent to disturb peaceful relations between nations, especially to prepare for aggressive war, are unconstitutional. They shall be made a punishable offense.

The 1947 U.S.-authored Japanese constitution contains an equivalent, Article 9, which states:

"Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.

"In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."

U.S. military, especially air, bases in Germany, Italy and Japan have been used in every major military campaign waged by the Pentagon from the Korean War to the current one in Afghanistan for basing bombers and for the transit of troops, weapons and equipment.

So despite constitutional requirements to repudiate and renounce and bans against preparing for war, the three former Axis nations have indeed been partners to a series of armed conflicts for sixty years.'

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Sunday, August 16, 2009 2:37 PM

DREAMTROVE

The Axis reformed a couple years age, in response particularly to the US threats against Iran and failure to do anything about Taiwan.

It's a different world today.

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Sunday, August 16, 2009 8:04 PM

AGENTROUKA

I find your thread title terribly misleading.

Apparently one former Axis power is trying to change its constitution. Which, if I'm not mistaken, is the right of a sovereign nation?

Is there anything we should consider terribly disturbing about this?

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Monday, August 17, 2009 12:27 AM

DREAMTROVE

Actually, there is a new axis, but the reaction to it is very knee-jerk. Australia has signed on as an axis power, and they're in talks with Iran. The real target here is Tawiwan, which wants rid of Communism, which we would have been in favor of a few years ago.

There's not been really any talk of involving Italy or Germany, neither of which are currently sovereign nations, but are occupied by the EUSSR.

The goal of the axis is to provide an "alternative defense" to the US-NATO alliance, and the primary citation is the failure to defend Taiwan against Chinese takeover. There's still concern and hope to free Taiwan, but there's also an increasing concern that the US will do nothing in the event of a China-backed North Korean attack on South Korea.

Additionally, US attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan and persistent threats against Iran and Syria, and the EU-US/NATO/UN compliance with all of the above has helped make the allies a less credible defense force.

Personally, I suspect they're correct: If N. Korea invades S. Korea, the US will probably do nothing, which will leave it to Japan and Australia to defend.

(What does it say that we've lost two allies)

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