http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad03232011.html
A hundred years ago, Italian planes inaugurated aerial bombardment over these very cities. The Futurist Tommaso Marinetti flew on one sortie, finding the bombing runs to be “hygienic” and a good “moral education.” The air force communiqué from November 6, 1911 considered the runs to “have a wonderful effect on the morale of the Arabs.” The Daily Chronicle hesitated on the same day, “This was not war. It was butchery. Noncombatants, young and old, were slaughtered ruthlessly, without compunction and without shame.” The Italians took cover behind international law. The Institute for International Law in Madrid found that “air warfare is allowed, but only on the condition that it does not expose the peaceful population to greater dangers than attacks on land or from the sea.”
