The other day, I took Kevin Drum to task for his remarks about Sylvio Berlusconi. I don’t really care for the man (Berlusconi, that is) but I do appreciate his support on the international stage. However, I am rapidly developing a less charitable view of the man:
“Mussolini never killed anyone. Mussolini used to send people on vacation in internal exile,” Berlusconi was quoted as saying.
The premier clarified his remark to reporters later Thursday.
“I didn’t accept his comparison, or the comparison of my country to another dictator or another dictatorship, that of Saddam Hussein, which provoked millions of deaths,” Berlusconi said at a news conference.
Amos Luzzatto, the president of the Italian Jewish community, expressed “sadness” over the published remarks.
“The Fascist regime did not make extermination camps for the Jews, but certainly it contributed to creating them,” he told the AGI news agency. “If killing someone only means hitting an adversary and killing him, then not even Hitler killed anyone. But in that way, we can say that there are no murderers in the world.”
Groan.
DANEgerus
Because Italians making excuses for Italians is distasteful…
Where as French Vichy, which killed far more Jews then Mussolini, gets a pass…
;)
David Perron
Does this mean we’re going to have to find some other word to use in lieu of italics?
berlusconi
Yes Berlusconi is stupid…
This is another gaffes…