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The Dark Valley: The 50 Year Reign of Il Duce



The Dark Valley: The 50 Year Reign of Il Duce.


It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do - Benito Mussolini.





(- BBC World Service Rome 2003 -)

Massive protests in Rome and other Italian cities by left wing groups, monarchists and human rights organizations disrupt official commemorations of Mussolini’s March on Rome. Monarchist parties supporting different claimants to the throne clashed, in what protest organizers claim was a deliberate provocation by Italian police.

Mussolini remains a highly controversial figure in modern Italy. He remained a highly popular leader and statesman during his lifetime, but critics of his regime point to his suppression of democracy, violation of human rights and expansionist polices in Africa and Balkans. Supporters of Mussolini regime notably the current Italian President Roberto Fiore claim that Mussolini's rule prevented Italy succumbing to communist revolution and civil war, harbored Jewish refugees from Germany and kept Italy from being dragged into a losing war alongside Germany during WW2 and greatly improved Italy’s standing in international politics.

"It was terrible," said Fascist party official Mussolini Ferrara, "while we understand that there are those revisionist elements who dislike our great national hero, it is utterly abhorrent the way they disturb such a solemn event. While I and the Fascist party remain instruments of peace, brotherhood and order such anarchic behavior makes one very sympathetic to the heavy-handed tactics of the past."

The protestors themselves called the event "a celebration of violence, hatred and imperialist aggression." Said one protestor who identified herself as a Libertarian Socialist, "He was a thug. A strutting black-shirted thug who used arson, the cudgel and the boot to oppress the worker. Yes, he fought Hitler, but so what? A thug is a thug, even one not quite blind enough to overlook the machinations of a bigger thug."Said Shlomo Klein of the Hebrew Youth Front, "I don't care what the Elders say, Mussolini was no friend of the Jew! You can call those 'internment camps' a 'rescue' all you want. Babylon is Babylon. If anything, he was complicit in the Nazi genocide. Without Mussolini there would have been no war, no 'Final Solution'!" Royalist supporter Pedro Gennetti stated ''Mussolini was a traitor, the man deposed the King for seeking to end the calamity and defeat we suffered, simply because that tyrant wished to be a modern-day Caesar!''.

Counter-protestors held opposite views. "Yes, regrettably II Duce and his compatriots had to resort to some...strong and forceful means to save the nation from Marxism and Anarchism, and later Hitlerism" said Fascist Minister Italo Cabrini, "but to ignore the great deeds he did for our nation in war and in peace is to deny the very soul of the Italian Patria!"

"Complicit in the Shoah?" said Rabbi Israel Samon, there by invite of the Fascist party, "What is wrong with these kids? Mussolini saved the Jewish people from utter annihilation! Have they not read Hitler's book? Read the Nazi files? Hitler would have killed us all like he killed so many. He then revealed a number tattooed on his inner wrist, adding: "Babylon? Ha! These kids have no concept of what Babylon truly is!"

Italian President Roberto Fiore was more reticent: "Yes, II Duce had some regrettable past actions, but in total we the Italian people cannot forget his courage and fortitude in the face of the great threats to this nation. He was a product of his times but also ahead of his times. He and the Fascist Party not only rescued our nation from disunity and poverty but elevated us to international power status and brought our nation the recognition and honor it now holds. In this day is about the heroics and honor and pride of our people.

Such sentiments remain the norm in the Italian government these days, the National Republican Party having governed Italy in coalition with the Fascist Party and smaller right-wing parties for the past sixteen years.

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''He's been on the verge of death so many times...His doctors themselves are in shock that he's still alive. Half the blood vessels in his brain are about to burst after his strokes, his intestines are spotted all over with holes, he has giant ulcers in his stomach, his heart is in absolutely disgusting condition, he is literally rotting... He could die from any one of dozens of physical problems that he has, but contrary to all laws of nature -- he lives.'' - Edmondo Fabbri interviewed 1971 - excerpt from Mussolini: a biography.
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