Italy, which has troops in Iraq despite the fact that at least 60 percent of the population opposes the war, the death of Calipari has snowballed into a diplomatic stand-off. Mr. Berlusconi is not likely to withdraw Italian troops in retaliation, but he is under pressure to demand answers from his US allies. In many cases of US military errors, critics say there is rarely any recognition of a failure high in the American command chain. Technical glitches are identified or individual, junior soldiers are punished, usually lightly. "At best, they will tell us a soldier from Tennessee made a mistake," said Bobo Craxi, the son of Italy's former Socialist Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, dismissing the ongoing investigations. Italy is not the only country feeling uneasy as the American military investigates its own mistakes. US friendly fire claimed the death of one Bulgarian soldier last week in Iraq. US officials have pledged to investigate both incidents.
"What people want is a major political admission of guilt," says Roberto Menotti, analyst at Rome's Aspen Institute. "There is mounting pressure among US allies to find a way for independent tribunals to judge these cases. But the US, he notes, opposes the International Criminal Court. "The US is one of the few democratic countries in the world that does not accept the idea of supernational legal action," says Menotti. "As long as America insists on judging itself, that is a problem for all of its allies."
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