it was the beating of rodney king on tape by l.a. police that moved rock star peter gabriel to found the witness campaign...so it stands to reason that before the u.s. takes it upon itself to "train" police and military from around the world we should get our own domestic training right first...
i'm just sayin'...
yet the united states government trains approximately 100,000 foreign police and soldiers from more than 150 countries each year...one of the purported benefits of this training is that it instills respect for human rights and democratic institutions...but the vast majority of u.s. training courses do not include specific instruction in the human rights or humanitarian law obligations that soldiers must obey...unfortunately, many of the government forces the u.s. has trained have poor human rights records...
unless by human rights you mean torture, kidnapping or "disappearances", and ill treatment of detainees...
all of this cost of tens of millions of dollars...tens of thousands study in the u.s. at the approximately 275 known military schools and installations that provide training; the u.s. trains many more in their own nations through a variety of programs...closure of the u.s. army's recently renamed school of the americas (SOA) has been the principal focus to date of campaigners concerned about the human rights impact of u.s. military and police training...but SOA is just the tip of the iceberg...the map above represents only a partial listing of all the schools and installations in the u.s. that provide foreign military training...
it's not only about "what's in your wallet" but "what's in your backyard,"...
peace out <3
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