Dear director, I am sending you this little reflection of mine on the mysterious communication story of the Defense White Paper, given that your newspaper has repeatedly followed the subject.
For the avoidance of doubt, I affirm my sharing, as an observer, with the central theme expressed in it, namely the need for a reorganization based on the inter-force principle of the Italian Armed Forces, also in respect of a renewed policy of rationalization of public spending in an optical drive to improve the efficiency of the entire state apparatus and an ever greater efficiency of the organization. However, I specify the completely personal position that the criterion that should guide this reorganization should be the federal one, that is, the one that in politics and economics would materialize with the concept of Unity in respect of Diversity and here I would add some typical features, of competences in domains specific.
The reorganization should never be left under the guidance of one or the other party and in any case never directed by a man in uniform, as it would seem to be happening here in Italy. The example of the American model that sees in the Secretary of Defense a third and super partes figure (our Minister of Defense), in any case not military but assisted by the military, would help. This could make such a delicate process of change more digestible for everyone, because it would disregard the weights of force exerted by numbers and the physical presence in the palaces of power of some colors of military uniforms. So the Minister is this the effort he should make, to protect minorities, which should be natural for his culture and political coherence. I dwell on this concept and return to the White Paper, this time to the version that would seem definitive published, anticipating the minister, on the website of the Public Policy agency at the address http://www.publicpolicy.it/libro-bianco-difesa-46546.html
I then imagined a title like this: Public Policy and the mystery of the Defense White Paper. A Colabrodo employed by the Minister!
It might seem like one of the many titles of the movie series of Harry Potter or Indiana Jones and in any case a title given by the Hollywood or Walt Disney creatives and instead is the sad observation of the temporal dynamics with which the political-strategic document of Defense, that official, he made his public appearance. We are a bit 'controversial because in fact for some time, with a questionable strategy, have issued a series of working copies or drafts addressed to insiders and among them we also put ourselves freelance journalists who follow closely and carefully these issues , always denied by the dicastery. But why put these copies around (false or skyliters), increasing the confusion among the observers or the insiders? Obviously the most immediate answer is that in confusion it is easier to disengage from criticism by stating that the reference text is a forgery, but then verify that among all these copies around, there are at least 5 versions, different only in the graphics but not in the substance.
In this environment illuminated by chaffs and flares, I only discovered on April 20 and I received confirmation on April 21, even before the Supreme Defense Council met, that the text I had read and on which I had studied it was only a working draft and not the original text. And yes, because already on the evening of April 20, the General, whom I will call for correctness, Bond (see photo on the right) posted the definitive text of the White Book at 22:25:08 and then changed it on April 21 at 14:23 : 00, always much earlier than the official presentation to the President of the Republic and Supreme Head of the Armed Forces Sergio Mattarella during the Supreme Defense Council which was held around 15:00.
However, one would exclaim in the Morettian manner Habemus Papam! Of course if only the document could be found on the official Defense website. Instead, even today on the Defense website, not even the shadow of the White Paper. Perhaps the name White derives from the similarity to the white of ghosts.
Instead I feel to comment that all this is ridiculous and paints a way of operating and communicating, all Italian, equal to that of a MinCulPop, with all the negative aspects of propaganda.
Also it seems to me also the photo of an environment, the one close to the Minister of Defense, far from clear. Of course, I do not know if you remember the selective approach, let's call it to be generous, used by the minister's spokesperson who called face to face, individually and separately, a few days before the official presentation to the Supreme Council of Defense by the Minister, very few, very select and reliable journalists (free?), to whom he entrusted the honorable message and an excerpt of the essential parts of the White Paper with the agreement of an embargo for all until 21 April after the presentation to the Head of State. However, something did not work if in the daily Il Foglio, the colleague Mario Sechi, burned all the 19 April with an exclusive piece in which he fully reported the imposed message.
Now I ask myself a question and I ask her and her readers as a provocation: "does the Minister know that the environment is a sieve full of holes, from which a thousand information flows spread in every direction?"
The sad thing is that we are not talking about any ministry but that of Defense, of that dicastery, that is, where confidentiality should be the fundamental characteristic, at least according to my humble observer opinion.
Julian Hamilton
