Quote from Pabst:
NO PRESIDENT OR WAR LEADER ATTENDS FUNERALS FOR FALLEN SOLDIERS!!! It's a faux pas! You guy's should know that. You think LBJ or Roosevelt or Churchill were buzzing around to the funerals of servicemen. It's not appropriate.
Monday, November 17, 2003
ROME, Italy -- The flag-draped caskets of 18 Italians killed a bomb blast in Iraq have been carried from a plane in solemn silence as they arrived back in Rome.
The state funerals for those killed in Italy's worst military slaughter since World War Two will be held on Tuesday.
On Friday 20 others wounded in the attack -- in which nine Iraqis also died -- arrived back in Italy.
The caskets containing the 18 dead will lie in state Monday at the Vittoriano, a large white marble monument that dominates central Rome.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has declared Tuesday a day of national mourning.
Across the nation, schools will observe a minute of silence, shops will close briefly and workers will pause for 10 minutes.
The Colosseum, usually lit up at night, will remain dark Tuesday evening in a tribute to the dead, Rome officials decided.
President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is cutting short a trip to the United States to attend the service, set for a Rome basilica.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/11/14/sprj.irq.italy.mourns/