29/04/2015 - Dear Director, I send you my little reflection on the mysterious communicative story of the Defense White Paper, since its publication has repeatedly followed the subject.

To avoid misunderstandings, I affirm my sharing, as an observer, to the central theme expressed in it, namely the need for a reorganization based on the interforce principle of the Italian Armed Forces, also in respect of a renewed policy of rationalizing public spending in an optic boost of efficiency of all the state apparatus and an always greater efficiency of the organization. However, I should point out the very personal position that the criterion that should guide this reorganization should be the federal one, that is, what in politics and economics would be concretized with the concept of Unit in compliance with the Diversity and here I would add the typicality, of skills in specific domains.

The reorganization should never be left under the guidance of one or the other party and never directed by a man in uniform, as it would seem to be happening here in Italy. It would help the example of the American model that sees in the Secretary of Defense a third figure e Super partes (our Minister of Defense), however, not military but assisted by the military. This could make a delicate process of change more digestible for everyone, because it would prescind from the weights of force exercised by numbers and the physical presence at the palaces of power of some colors of military uniforms. So the Minister is the effort he should make, protecting minorities, which should be natural for culture and political coherence. I dwell on this concept and return to the White Paper, this time to the version that would seem final published, anticipating the minister, on the agency's website Public Policy at http://www.publicpolicy.it/libro-bianco-difesa-46546.html 

So I 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 lit by the chaff and come on flare, I only discovered the 20 April and I had the confirmation of the 21 April, even before the Supreme Defense Council met, that the text that I had read and on which I had done some analysis was just a draft of work and not the original text. And yes because already on the evening of April 20, the General, who I will call correctly, Bond (see photo on the right) placed the final text of the White Paper at 22: 25: 08 and then changed the 21 April at 14: 23 : 00, always much earlier than the official presentation to the President of the Republic and Chief Supreme of the Armed Forces Sergio Mattarella during the Supreme Defense Council that was held around the 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