The controversy that has arisen in recent days about the sending of Ak to the Kurds besieged by the ISIS forces in Iraq makes me smile not so much in relation to the goodness and effectiveness of the weapons, but in relation to the Italian vice of recent times (someone will say years, someone other centuries ...) not to expose oneself with courage by taking a clear and strong political position.
I find it ridiculous the excuse of sending weapons seized twenty years ago to the Kurds "because they are already known by the Peshmerga militiamen" for two reasons. The first is that the basic equipment of any army is designed to be understood and quickly used by any primate with an opposable thumb, in short, an Ikea brochure could be enough to explain how a weapon works or disassembles, it is not absolutely essential to have a university course to shoot us. The second is that providing a weapon with a clear nationality and provenance represents a strong message for those who use, observe or suffer from them.
The images in this article are not wrong, are taken by frames of some of the many videos that tell, although it would be better to say "fight on the web", the uncivilized war (because dirty and no longer between countrymen) in recent years in Syria .
In the photos you see, the Western weapons used by anti-government forces in Syria, as well as being in many cases more effective than the AKs in the field, are also more effective in the media force of the images. They symbolize support, an alliance, even if indirect and / or mediated.
I remember one of the first videos that, years ago, the Syrian "poor anti-government rebels" uploaded on the net ... They sported some spectacular Steyr latest version which countered the poor and dated Kalashnikov videos of Assad's men.
I thought.
Really in an area like the Middle East there is need of the Kalashnikov della Maddalena?
Beyond the fact that we had already sent them "soo secretly" to the Libyan rebels in the 2011, really a people persecuted for decades as Kurdish does not have at least (at least!) A weapon per capita in every house or can not get it without too many problems for cross streets?
The Ak is definitely a legend in terms of reliability and ease of use, but if we had the courage to send the ARX-160 to the Kurds or, if we really have to save, the AR-70 / 90 we are selling, the message of the Italy to ISIS and especially to the rich Middle Eastern countries that support it would not be very different?
Of course, if things turn out badly, in that case we can't hide our hand by saying and as usual "open ourselves to dialogue and peaceful confrontation" with beings unworthy even to be defined as "animals". Out of respect for nature ...
Andrea Cucco
