Something of Substance?

Yeah, so I'm pretty cut off from the outside world. But I try. So:

Berlusconi. Everyone seems to know that he's an asshole. I understand he's a bit of a fascist, a perpetrator of censorship to some degree. Italians hate him. When Italians start to give Americans crap about Dubya, we retort, "But you've got Berlusconi," and they agree sheepishly.

When I read the news on Berlusconi - like recently the pressures for him to remove troops from Iraq - it seems that his gravest fault is being an American puppet, more so than any fascist leanings; the Italians' answer to Tony Blair, if you will. If this is the case, Americans shouldn't hate Berlusconi, right? Even many leftist Americans derided the French for refusing to support the war, while they scoffed less venomously at Blair for not refusing. But maybe that's just because French cowardice is so easy to mock.

On the other hand, I'm getting most of my information from the media, which is exactly what Berlusconi controls on the Italian side, I hear. But why would he WANT to portray himself as an American puppet, of all things?

I don't really know what's going on at all.