US base expansion plan splits Italy government

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=127927&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21

ROME: Italy’s centre-left government, already accused by the opposition of being anti-American, is being split down the middle over whether to let Washington expand one of the largest US military bases in Europe.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who came to power last May amid talk that the staunch pro-Washington line of his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi would be reversed, must decide by Friday whether to the green light for enlarging a base at Vicenza.

Vicenza, near Venice in northern Italy, is home to the US Southern European Task Force, based in Italy since 1951 in the Cold War years.

Since the 1960s it has hosted part of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The expansion plan would allow the whole of the rapid-reaction force to be based in Italy.

Anti-Bush administration isn't anti-American. By that measure, just about the whole of the planet is anti-American.