How about investing in businesses in Africa instead of teaching more war-fighting skills to a war-ravaged continent?

There are over 60 countries in Africa. Can you name 5 that aren't run by mass-murdering dictators ? Is it a good idea to promote the 'stability' of keeping them in power ? When you help the oppressors, you become the enermy of the oppressed and one day they will strike back with the only means available to them - Terrorism.

I encourage the author or other Foreign Policy authors and experts to take up the thread put forth by Jadensmith. As counterinsurgency, stability operations, and other military-lead means of achieving security in other parts of the world have, as Jadensmith identified, ended largely in disaster, do we really consider it wise to transplant this model to Africa?

Even the most "professional" of militaries need strong civilian oversight, independent judiciaries capable of prosecuting military human rights violations, and a government capable of paying its soldiers' salaries. (Many US-trained Somali soldiers, for example, find the much more reliable al-Shabab salaries appealing, or benefit most from arm&equip through selling those weapons to al-Shabab) When the U.S. is not putting forth nearly the same effort to support such non-military endeavors, and when numerous U.S.-supported leaders and "partners" have themselves commitment human rights violations with impunity or demonstrated a disregard for the importance of rule of law, how is African civil society to trust that this training, capacity-building, and hardware is genuinely in the interest of democracy and economic development, the true building blocks of a secure society?

In a continent (with no in-house arms production) that is still feeling the effects of "partners" having been armed & equipped to fight the Cold War on African soil, and during this day and age when the declared US-led global war on terror has yet to take stock of its devastating impact for the communities on whose soil it is waged, it is important to ask if strengthening militaries of strategic American allies is truly the path toward stability and security for the African people.

What is distressing about articles such as these is that there is a blind acknowledgment that the military will create security. Rebel groups, violent extremism, and war exist in Africa not because countries lack professional militaries or police forces but because of poverty. When a society has a good education system, health care system, infrastructure, good jobs, etc. individuals are far less likely to join the ranks of a rebel group.

Why then is the United States spending so much money and effort training and equipping African militaries without also enacting policies that will generate true security in Africa? A national army is only as effective and as responsible as its government. As has been mentioned, without good governance and strong judicial systems, how will African nations maintain the forces the U.S. has so boldly trained?

I am deeply saddened that my tax dollars contribute to further instability in Africa, particularly when we know the elements of real security. The U.S. would be better off enacting fair trade policies, promoting labor rights, boosting education systems, and training doctors and scientists than spending money on guns and counterinsurgency training. These elements would not only generate more security in Africa but also in the United States.