And by the way, what about Afghanistan? Our very self-satisfied Foreign minister stated that Italy's military presence in Afghanistan "must be maintained", because after all,"it's not a military mission" (whatever you say, minister).

So Prodi is pulling out of Iraq, but has no intentions to pull out of Afghanistan. They get away with such nonsense because -- like everywhere else -- people here consider the Iraq war the 'wrong' one, and the Afghan war the 'right' one, the one really motivated by terrorism and so on.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In Afghanistan heroin production is soaring like hell, Talibans are on the rise, Osama is nowhere to be found (and by the way Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are much more involved in international terrorism schemes) and more importantly, conditions of democracy aren't anywhere in sight.
As with Iran, the main reasons for this war seem to be those meant to keep the Russian influence out of the area.

It seems to be that the great game is still on the table, or whatever else we should call it (shitty game?).
I suggest the captivating and exhaustive book by the same name (in Italian, "Il Grande Gioco") to those interested in understanding something of this very very old shitty matter.