In the Cold War, the Army in Europe was fully committed to defending Europe from a Soviet invasion and would have needed substantial reinforcements from the Continental United States to hold off the Red juggernaut.
When the Berline Wall was pulled down, the Soviet threat diminished greatly, and so in 1990 we were able to dispatch an entire corps based in Europe to Saudi Arabia for the liberation of Kuwait.
In 1991, the Soviet Union itself collapsed and Europe became free from the threat of invasion. Only now are we reconfiguring our Europe-based Army to reflect these changes. We are pulling our heavy armor out of Europe and replacing them with fewer but more mobile brigades designed to be deployed out of Europe to fight rather than to fight in Europe.
One of the changes has been enlarging the Italy-based Army from the Cold War level of a paratrooper battalion. First it was enlarged into a two-battalion brigade and now it will be enlarged to a three-battalion brigade.
Italy has approved the enlargement of our base at Vicenza to accomodate this change:
The Pentagon wants to enlarge the base near Venice in northern Italy, which is home to the U.S. Southern European Task Force, so that it can house all the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vicenza instead of dividing it between Italy and Germany.This brigade and others in Europe will be well placed to react to events in a broad arc of crisis ranging from the Gulf of West Africa to the Persian Gulf.
"I am about to tell the U.S. ambassador that the Italian government won't oppose the decision by the previous government and the town council of Vicenza to allow the expansion of the military base," Prodi told reporters on a visit to Bucharest.
My thanks to the Italians for continuing to be an ally as the Cold War basis of our alliance fades away.
