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I saw on the news today another effort for "closure", the thing Americans need most when something horrible happens and want to make things all better again. Richard Ashby was acquitted of manslaughter charges the other day. The jetplane he was piloting in a NATO training exercise in Italy last year sliced through the cable wires of a ski gondola and sent 20 civilians plunging to their deaths. He's now announced that he'd like to hug the families of the victims, "if they'd let him." Sounds like he's lookin for "closure", if you ask me. I doubt the relatives who lost their loved ones through his recklessness will take him up on the offer...they're not Americans, and probably couldn't understand how a little hug makes everything all right in the end.
Instead, they seem rather bitter. The US press though hasn't focused on the families. I've seen story and story on the web and on TV with the peg: "Italians shocked over acquittal". The US press has flocked to the scene of the tragedy to get firsthand reaction from the locals, as if they're the only ones affected by this. But this is not a local story...most of Europe seems to be quite shocked by this event. Only three of the victims were Italians. There were seven Germans, several Belgians, a Dutch girl, and two Poles.
From Clinton on down, the US government seems to want to sweep all this unpleasantness under the rug as quickly as possible. Defense secretary Cohen assures us that this will have no effect on US-European relations, like his arrogant spin makes it so. Is that the end of the matter then? Have we already reached "closure"?
Quite possibly. Unfortunately, Western Europeans aren't all that good about standing up to the US. The French have given the US the finger a number of times over NATO, and as a result almost never get positive coverage in the US media, and is considered mighty unreliable by the US government.In general though, the Europeans huff and they puff, but in the end, the US does what it wants and gets what it wants. It insisted that Ashby not be tried by an Italian civil court, and Italy complied. Why they complied is a huge question mark, that still should be answered. There were doubts right from the start that justice could be done by a US military court.There's some talk now that Italy will demand the US close some of its bases on its soil. Unlikely, but that would be REAL "closure".
Still, the verdict shocked people, and not only in Europe. Americans I've talked to seem to feel this was a shameful outcome. Admittedly, I usually only come across liberal Americans, but I haven't seen the usual suspects from the right blathering about this on tv. For once they seem to have little to say. A rare but enjoyable absence.
So it seems likely this story will have a short shelf-life, since after all, no Americans were killed. There are much more important issues to cover, such as whether Monica Lewinsky really will be joining Barbara Walters as a regular castmember on Bawbwa's daytime talkshow "The View". But the next time Americans sit around and ponder why the world loves our junkfood but dislikes us so much as a nation, they might remember the image of that crushed ski gondola.That's probably way too much to hope for: self-reflection is not an American strength, while "big hugs" are. Once the hugs are given out, everything will be OK. If only the rest of the world could face up to that...
(March 5, 1999)
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