I would like to dedicate my monthly reflection to an event of great importance, with regard to both politics and the media, which took place on the day of the Epiphany in Washington.

All of us have, I believe, accompanied with growing disbelief and horror the images, conveyed in real time by TV networks all over the world, of the absurd violence that transpired from a wild crowd of "supremacists" on one of the symbolic institutions of the United States, the Congress, called in those hours to confirm the Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the presidential elections on 2 November.

The Commissions of Inquiry (and, later, the historians) will have the task of examining the causes and accountability concerning what happened on that dramatic 6 february. The outgoing president (in the meantime subjected to a humiliating "impeachment" procedure) was unable to accept the clear verdict of the polls. Did he or did he not convey an ambiguous message to his loyalists, urging them to "make themselves heard" by Congress? Did the administrative and police authorities responsible for the security of the Capitol at first underestimate the degree of threat from the mobsters? Furthermore, as the demonstration was underway was their illegal entry into the building actually even favored? In both cases, the more than likely answer is "yes", but this is not enough to explain the reasons for such delusional collective behavior, also taking into account the fact that the attackers were not Islamic fundamentalists wishing to disseminate terror once more in the West, but proud Americans. As further confirmation of such pride, the vandalism of Capitol Hill took place amidst an ostentatious brandishing of flags and banners with stars and stripes.

A possible explanation could consist in the firm conviction of the demonstrators concerning the electoral scam on a national scale of which President Trump was supposedly a victim, reinforced by the speeches of the then occupant of the White House and the supporting press which was combined with the resolve to no longer recognize Congress as one of the legitimate centers of established power. However, it is an interpretation that cannot find any basis, if we consider the presence of consolidated and transparent electoral procedures as well as free information organs with immediate access to all in the United States.

By a tragic irony of fate, the fact certainly did not escape us that two of the five victims turned out to be ex-soldiers, with experience in Iraq and Afghanistan at their back. United by the resolution, in those difficult areas of crisis, to defend the interests of their country with pride and determination, they died in the federal capital pursuing opposite objectives, in one case the defense of Congress, in the other its desecration.

With this disturbing scenario in the background, two final considerations seem to stand out:

  1. the total repudiation of the recent violence in Washington recalls, by contrast, the "armed" image of the United States to which we will look with deep and lasting gratitude. That, which is linked to the involvement of the United States in the Second World War, which ended with the liberation of the European continent from the regimes of oppression and tyranny in force up to that moment;
  2. the certainty that the relationship between the United States and the countries of the European Union will continue to represent the backbone of the system of international relations, guaranteeing high levels of democracy, civil liberties and economic progress also to new generations.

For this to happen, the political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, starting with the new administration in Washington, must never lack skills of competence, responsibility and reliability.

 

"Reggente" Marco Marsilli, Foundation President

Jake Angeli, the "Shaman" who led the revolt against Congress

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