Even when the facts point elsewhere, a certain strain of online commentary insists on blaming the United States for just about everything. In a recent opinion piece for American Thinker, writer Michele San Pietro takes aim at what he calls “manic keyboard warriors” who peddle anti-American conspiracy theories, particularly regarding two infamous episodes in Italian history: the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro and the 1980 Bologna railway station bombing.
San Pietro acknowledges that criticism of the United States is legitimate—he says he’ll “always fight for everybody’s right” to criticize individual U.S. actions. But he draws a line at generalized insults, calls for America’s destruction, and, above all, accusations that ignore basic chronology.
The Aldo Moro case: A far-left kidnapping with a CIA twist?
In March 1978, the Red Brigades, a far-left terrorist group responsible for hundreds of killings, kidnapped Aldo Moro, a prominent member of Italy’s Christian Democracy party, after killing his five bodyguards. Less than two months later, the Red Brigades killed Moro and left his body in a car in central Rome.
The Red Brigades themselves, including captured leaders, have acknowledged responsibility. But in certain corners of the internet, the story goes differently: the CIA was supposedly behind the kidnapping, with Henry Kissinger orchestrating a plot that allegedly included threatening Moro with death years earlier.
San Pietro finds this hard to swallow. The Red Brigades hated the United States, he notes, making collaboration with the CIA implausible on its face. He also points out that the group kidnapped NATO general James Lee Dozier in December 1981—an American stationed in Italy—who was freed 40 days later by Italian police special forces. Why would a group allegedly working with Washington target an American general?
Then there’s the timeline. In March 1978, Kissinger had been out of office for 14 months, having stepped down as secretary of state in January 1977. The U.S. president at the time was Democrat Jimmy Carter, not a Republican. “It’s simply insanity,” San Pietro writes, to imagine Kissinger running a covert operation from the private sector while Carter sat in the White House.
Regardless, he says, the “un-American keyboard warriors” persist, and they get angry when their claims are challenged. He attributes this to paranoia.
The Bologna bombing: Far-right carnage, but the CIA gets the blame
The second case San Pietro examines is the August 1980 bombing of the Bologna railway station waiting room. The explosion killed 86 people and injured more than 200. The attack was carried out by the NAR (Armed Revolutionary Nuclei), a far-right terrorist group that, like the Red Brigades, was responsible for hundreds of deaths during Italy’s “years of lead.” Most of those responsible were arrested and convicted.
Yet the same conspiracy-minded commentators claim the CIA was behind the bombing—with some even pointing the finger at Ronald Reagan. San Pietro observes that this timeline doesn’t work either: in August 1980, Reagan was not yet president. He was elected three months later, in November. The president then? Once again, Jimmy Carter.
Interestingly, San Pietro notes, no one seems to blame Carter for these crimes. The former Democratic president, he says, wouldn’t have had the “necessary standing” for such an operation—but that doesn’t stop the theorizing. He also observes that the Italian Communist Party, which was strong in 1980, supported Carter in that year’s election, perhaps explaining why a party that might otherwise embrace anti-American narratives hasn’t targeted a Democrat.
The perils of ignoring chronology
San Pietro’s broader point is that anti-Americanism, when it abandons facts, becomes nonsense. “If you want to do anti-Americanism, feel free to do so,” he writes. “But avoid historical nonsense at least.”
He is careful to distinguish between legitimate criticism and baseless accusation. Criticizing specific U.S. policies or actions is fair game. But claiming the CIA kidnapped Aldo Moro or bombed Bologna—despite the absence of evidence and the glaring timing problems—crosses into what he calls “sheer madness.”
The piece is part of a larger tradition in conservative commentary of pushing back against reflexive anti-Americanism. But it also taps into a broader digital phenomenon: the ease with which conspiracy theories spread online, regardless of their factual grounding. In Italy, as elsewhere, the internet has given new life to old myths, and people who would never accept such claims about their own country often embrace them when aimed at the United States.
Whether San Pietro’s argument will convince the “keyboard warriors” he criticizes is doubtful. Conspiracy theories rarely yield to logic. But by laying out the dates and the actors, he makes a simple case: if you’re going to blame America, at least get the timeline right.
Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/08/it-s-always-america-s-fault/