http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703190124mar19,1,6246567.story?coll=chi-news-hedIt's part of broader opposition in Europe
By Christine Spolar, Tribune foreign correspondent. Alessandra Maggiorani contributed to this report
Published March 19, 2007
VICENZA, Italy -- The fighting men of the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team have deployed twice in four years to two faraway wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Never did they expect to return to their northern Italian home and face hostility.
For months now, Italians have turned out by the dozens and even the thousands to protest the planned expansion of a military installation to house 1,600 U.S. soldiers to be newly stationed in Vicenza. The U.S. Army is shrinking in Europe, but military transformation in Italy has gone the other way. snip
Last month, tens of thousands of protesters descended on Vicenza, a city of gleaming granite pillars and villas located between Verona and Venice, to protest the U.S. military growth at home. Some argued the environmental and aesthetic costs of putting more troops in Vicenza. Many others, including left-wing activists who poured into town, said the base known as Camp Ederle should not be enhanced to help what are increasingly unpopular wars.
"It's not a question of being anti-American," said Martina Vultaggio, a social worker who organizes weekly rallies in Vicenza. "Many of us have relatives at the base and friends who work at the base. But this is a movement that is against using local land for war purposes--and for wars we don't support."
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