A close aide of Defence Minister Guido
Crosetto said Monday that suspended army general Robero
Vannucci, now a League candidate in next month's European
elections, had damaged the army's image and reputation with his
bestselling book The World Back To Front slamming gays, Blacks,
feminists, Jews and other minorities.
Lieutenant-Colonel Gianfranco Paglia, a Crosetto advisor, said
on TV show Zona Bianca, on Rete4, that the former paratroop
commander's book "has tarnished the uniform, and we military
cannot afford it.
"My duty,' Paglia added, "is to explain to the whole of Italy
that Vannacci's thinking is not the thinking of the Defence
establishment."
Paglia's comments prompted Vannacci to say he did not care about
such criticism.
"I haven't seen the TV but I ask myself a question," Vannacci
replied on Facebook, "speaking in Uniform was he expressing his
personal opinion or that of the Institution to which he belongs?
"Because I, for having written a book in a personal capacity in
my spare time, have been accused and suspended also for having
suggested a link between the author and the ideas expressed by
him to the Institution to which he belongs!
"But I don't care!".
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