Italy declines to bomb Syria: 'We want to wipe out terrorists, not please the commentators'

The Italian flag flies over a monument in Rome

(Image credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images)

published 7 December 2015

Italy will not join U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced Sunday in a statement which warned against unintended consequences of reactive military interventions.

"If being a protagonist means playing at running after other people's bombardments, then I say 'no thank you,'" Renzi said. "Italy's position is clear and solid. We want to wipe out terrorists, not please the commentators. The one thing we don't need is to multiply on-the-spot reactions, without a strategic vision."

Renzi also drew comparisons to the 2011 NATO airstrikes in Libya, which successfully helped rebel efforts to oust Moammar Gadhafi but left the country a chaotic haven of terrorism: "Four years of civil war in Libya show it was not a happy decision. Today there needs to be a different strategy," to deal with Syria, Renzi said. He added, "The one thing we cannot allow ourselves is a repeat of Libya."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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