Weapons of Mass Distraction

And a War looms.....
Arriving to the Italian consulate, I am surprised to find the room already crowded with people. It hasn't been this way on my previous trips here, dropping off document after document for the consulato clerk's intense scrutiny. Usually there is only one or two other souls about, each with yellow folders full of the flotsam and jetsam one needs to navigate the consulate maze of papers and stamps.

But today there are seven students, two from Russia, one from Prague, three families, two older couples, surely retirees looking for that long extended tourist visa as they make their way towards extended stay visas to take The Grand Tour and one smartly dressed soldier clothed in US Navy thread. We are a ramshackle bunch, each of us with our paper "now serving" number yada yada yada, and all with eyes affixed both to the counting machine and the small television tuned to CNN where the UN special envoy Hans Blix is reporting on Iraq.

Everyone in the room is nervous. The students each eyeing detailed questions on their visa applications about their place of lodging while studying in Italy, the families who just seem tired and determined to return home, the Navy officer and me.

As the clock ticks away and cob webs begin to form on my waiting body, I promise to keep a watchful eye on the countdown (now serving 76, we are 81 and 82 respectively) while my Navy buddy goes out for a quick smoke, promising him I'll peck on the glass and let him know if his number comes up. When he returns, I ask him if he thinks we will really and truly go to war in the Middle East, hoping that what I am listening too is your standard Washingtonian saber rattling. Instead, he shakes his head with grim resolution, telling me that the Pentagon has already deployed five aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf region.

We talk about the Army's request for cremating soldiers in case of poison gas. And grimly, I begin to worry a little about my upcoming flight on a US Carrier to Florence on the 18th. Wondering if I should have opted for the Lufthansa flight and the lower baggage allowance. We talk about politics and inevitabilities but mostly we talk about the quagmire of paperwork it takes to be granted permission to stay in Italy. Anything to lighten the weight of our previous conversation.

I ask him "What brings you to Italy?" and he explains that he is taking a voluntary pay cut to do a Tour of Duty in Naples, the city where he was raised before his parents immigrated to the US. Appearing to be about my same age, with no Italian accent whatsoever, I wonder aloud what it was that influenced his choices in returning to Italy at his age and was quite surprised when I didn't get the "for God and Country" military spiel. "People in the US just don't get it" he stated simply, and gave no further explanation (though none was needed). And nodding in like agreement, we both talked a bit about the European mentality, which, when looking from the outside in, might seem pretty dysfunctional but on the whole infinitely more natural once you got used to it.

I'm sure all in all, he and I probably saw eye to eye on very little with respect to the world and her politics, but we both stood in single unison in our beliefs that having been a part of both worlds, we willing decided to trade in our cowboy hats, knowing for certain where we fit in the best. This Naval officer was heading home, and I was heading for Florence and as we both gathered up our respective visas, I wished him Godspeed and happiness and he wished me peace.

Hoping like hell we each find a little of both.