PLEBISCITO.EU | PNV. Press News Veneto

Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize surprised everyone. The recipient himself admits the decision was based on promise (“hope”), rather than on concrete achievements.

If potential is the measuring stick, then the US president definitely deserves it for defusing tensions with Venezuela, Iran and Russia.

But if there is one corner of the world were he definitely has not delivered, not on promise, not in action, this is a little forgotten place so cherished by American tourists.

Venice and the surrounding Veneto region are the primary overseas vacation targets for millions of US citizens. The area is also home to several US military bases, like Aviano and Vicenza’s Ederle.

Since the fifties, this has been a critical Cold War spot in the heart of Europe and near the border with the Communist Eastern Block. Today it is still strategic as it is the first safe haven for troops coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Few places in Europe have been more pro USA than the Venetian hinterland. It’s not just tourist dollars that are welcomed from Verona’s Lake Garda, up to the Dolomites, and down through Venetian canals. Generations of US soldiers have also loudly roamed bars outside their base and merrily mingled with the locals.

This is no more.

Soldiers are now urged to possibly avoid leaving the base, and if so, to keep a low profile, and even make sure to dress “European” in order not to be spotted.

The perceived hostility (that concerns US soldiers but apparently not American tourists) is not due to growing anti-imperialism sentiments, but rather to a quite trivial local issue.

Under the Bush administration, the Pentagon decided to open a second military base in Vicenza. As a NATO ally, the Italian government had no problem making available Vicenza’s seldom used local airport, called Dal Molin.

While for half a century Vicenza was quite fine having one large US military base on the town’s outskirts, the populace went berserk over the news of a second base much closer to the town center and its assortment of Palladian palaces.

Technically, the US government is at no fault since it only needs the Italian central government permission to proceed. But if one of the goals of the new Nobel Laureate is to restore American reputation abroad, it would not be a bad strategy to start from the closest friends of America.

Few places around the world uphold American standards in civil liberties and democratic process. More often than not US cooperation with a foreign regime has resulted in the alienation of that country’s inhabitants.

As it may have transpired from other international news, the Italian government has its issues. In the case of Vicenza, a vociferous across-the-board movement has formed, called No Dal Molin, but its legal course has fallen on deaf ears in Rome.

The common denominator for these citizens organized against the new base is not anti-americanism, or anti-war sentiments. Their main beef with the new base is primarily urban, and all they ask is to have a local vote to approve such a large project in their backyard.

Aside from demonstrations, No Dal Molin has taken legal action, and has easily won at the Italian lower court level. However, the decision of letting a local vote decide was swiftly overturned by Italian higher courts.

As the Italian judicial system has proven a dead end, Vicenza’s only “hope” (aside from continuing to protest outside the new base’s site) is the man who made the world dream by promising the change they could believe in.

These are the petty issues that undoubtedly don’t even reach President Obama’s or Secretary Clinton’s desks. But these are the small costless steps that allow the US to make leaps in international approval.

For instance, make the new base conditional on local approval, complement it with a campaign on the benefits to the local economy, and most likely even win support for the base. If not, make it the next town over. There are other Venetian towns that have expressed willingness to host a military base and the business it brings.

Instead of only easing relationships with distant hostile dictators, why not earn your Nobel Prize by also enforcing the bonds with America’s closest friends (that is Europeans, not European leaders)?

The Pentagon can achieve American military needs in many ways. Perhaps though it would be wise to do it so servicemen won’t have to camouflage as European as they leisure through the foothills of the Alps. What will be next, a travel advisory urging tourists to sport a striped shirt and a straw hat before hopping on a gondola?

Filipo Dal Lago

PNV (Venetian National Party)