Misplaced priorities

To the editor:

I see where we now have Green Berets “training” African troops in Mali — to stop the spread of terrorism.

Yeah, right, and back in 1961, it was to “stop the spread of Communism.”

One of the countries to get a piece of the initial $500 million is Nigeria, a country rich with oil, while the vast majority of Nigerians live in abject poverty because they are busy killing each other. And let us not forget our new base in Djibouti, right between Ethiopia and Somalia.

The Africans don’t need us to teach them how to patrol/kill. Back in the 1800s, the Masai and the Zulu were feared by their neighbors. It is bad enough that we are wasting American lives in a cat-box like Iraq and Afghanistan, but now we are getting mired in Africa.

And let’s not forget the National Guard troops we have Kosovo.

Our own country is falling to pieces, and we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to civilize people who were gleefully killing each other 3,000 years before Christ.

Look at how many countries in Africa are currently embroiled in civil war over ethnic control. It has nothing to do with al-Qaida.

R.K. Butts

Wasilla