Comment by mastazi
I am Italian, that was one of the proudest moment in our history.
The Achille Lauro episode was an example of Italy choosing what's best for the region rather than what's best for the people across the Atlantic. Hundreds of hostages' lives were saved by the actions of the Italian Government that day.
For context, in the post WW2 era, hundreds of Italian civilians were killed in accidents caused by US military operations in Italy, and our spineless leaders did nothing. In many cases they actively helped covering up the truth. Two of many examples:
FWIW I was watching a warfare simulation game on YouTube yesterday, and the players were talking about the 1998 Cavalese cable. I remembered reports of it vividly; as a student pilot, one of my recurrent nightmares is of massive electrical cables everywhere, flying through that and trying to escape.
It was far worse for the people on that cable car. It was awful then and still awful now.