Smoldering rubble

18/04/19

Military syndicalism: an "epochal measure" that is taking shape, as can be touched by scrolling through the two releases that appeared on the web in the latest signed 24 hours, so to speak, one of the SIM Carabinieri and the other of sassate.it.

In the first, general Gian Gabriele Carta attacks for an open letter addressed to the Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, in order to underline the widespread discomfort for the form (and not for the substance) with which the Minister of Defense emphasized the civil union between two women of the Navy. The summary of the press release is "Minister Trenta is not touched. Ready to take to the streets ", a message addressed to ... to whom? To the Head of State? To the parties that support the Government?

In the second release, entitled "The Thirty on the Attack of Guided Promotions; it will go on only by merit ", the slogan is launched" the recreation is over, in front of the stunned Chiefs of Staff and the Commander of the Carabinieri (but also to the enthusiastic delegates of the Central Council of Military Representation). "The polite and measured language immediately leads to not devoting time to comments or analysis, but I consider it a duty for me and useful for someone to highlight two aspects:

- no citizen can be prohibited from representing his or her moral discomfort, rightly or wrongly, to the head of state by the behavior of others;

- it is beyond doubt that even the evaluation system in force in the Armed Forces can be subject to pressure (what the hell, we are in Italy, where politicians and churchmen, relatives and friends, honest and mafiosi do not miss the call of the series " I assure you, Tizio is very good and deserving more than Sempronio), but from here to "the recreation is over" there runs. If this were not the case, even the writer, son of a non-commissioned officer of the army who died at 39 years, would not explain how he managed to become general and to have had the privilege of being the first Sardinian commander of the "Sassari" Brigade (28 ° to be exact, given that the Carabinieri SIM has specified that the general Carta was the 30 °).

But considering that de minimis non curat praetor, let me at least put two questions to unionists in uniform: how come I have not yet read of any union stance against the political "boss", which without blinking has allowed the FAs to be plundered of 500 million, even knowing that the defense budget is so poor that it does not allow to adapt the modest salaries of the volunteers and not only those, to pay overtime, to allocate resources to training, to maintain the vehicles, to renew the materials, etc.?

And yet: why has no criticism been raised against the assignment of tasks (such as patching up of road holes, checking waste deposits, monitoring Roma camps and so on) that have nothing to do with the institutional ones envisaged for the FA by the Constitution?

It is legitimate to suspect that promoting trade unions are very "awake" representatives who feel entitled, on the basis of a few hundred votes collected in the national territory, to represent hundreds of thousands of soldiers, the majority of whom I fear are not in harmony with them.

There is a danger that military unions, like political leaders, will suffer the influence of the parties before the institution to which they belong. This choice, convenient for those who do it but decidedly reprehensible, can only cause damage and leave a trail of smoking rubble in the street.

The repeated attempts - as reported by the press - to emphasize alleged conflicts between the military and some parties are also perplexing, as it appears untruthful (but this is my inference) that there can be great harmony between military leaders and political summit; the impression is that we want to sow weeds and create contrasts by spreading falsehoods or hiding some truths, two behaviors that have a common purpose.

But in the end it was fatal that all this happened, if only we consider that the responsibility of the Defense is in the hands of a party that has not hidden its lack of harmony with the military world since its birth. A party that nevertheless had the foresight and cunning to surround itself with collaborators that I fear would put politics before the institution to which they belong. I hope I'm wrong.

General Nicolò Manca

Images: Ministry of Defense