Some have argued that the failure of the Malian army demonstrates that U.S. programs to train foreign troops are hopeless or even dangerous, but this position ignores two factors.
First, the United States trains foreign troops not as an act of charity but to advance its own security. We are training these troops so we do not have to commit our own forces, or so if we are forced to send in U.S. forces they will be supported by local troops.
The above excerpt was originally published in The New York Times.
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