Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "The 1985 Sigonella Incident" video.

The Italian "troops" at Sigonella consisted of 20 local police and 30 VAM, what would normally be classified as the base defense force in the US Air Force. The police were poorly trained and equipped mostly with sidearms. The VAM troops were better equipped but not much better trained, VAM forces at the time being considered the lowest rung of the Italian air force. There's very little question the 80 US special forces at Sigonella could have quickly disposed of this opposition if push came to shove. Combine this with the regime of Prime Minister Benito Craxi, a weak and corrupt socialist that maintained close ties to people like PLO leader Yasser Arafat and other leaders of terrorist supporting dictatorships in the region. The US rightly feared that the hijackers and their leaders would never receive an adequate punishment under Italian justice, and that's exactly what happened. It's certainly an interesting historical speculation as to how things would have gone if the special forces at Sigonella were never told to stand down.
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@FriedrichHerschel Yes, or Italy would have backed down and we could have flown out with the hijackers and Abas. You're making the assumption that Italy was strong enough in 1985 to have dumped NATO and struck out on its own. It was already in the grip of Palestinian terrorism and revolving door governments, with Craxi's being one of the weakest. I have no idea what the outcome would have been either but, as I wrote, it's an interesting historical speculation.
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