The School of the Americas was designed to train Latin American military and police officials with pro-US views in 1961. That is all well and good but there is opposition because many of those who were trained at SOA went on to carry out some pretty heinous crimes in their own countries. Many times, being more viscous than the rebels they try to put down.
In either case, there is a rally every November at Ft. Benning, GA, where thee school is held. Having had bad PR, they changed their name to "The Wester Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation). Having recognized the mistakes of the past, the army claims to have changed their strategy yet critics disagree, claiming the same practices still occur.
It would be practical to impress US values on those we train instead of just militarily training them. At the same time, I'm not sure how you defeat an enemy with morals when the enemy has absolutely none. All the allies in the world can commend you for being moral in your fight, but they are not the ones fighting. Do innocent people deserved to be raped, killed, and pillaged? Absolutely not and those responsible should be punished...the realities however, are that these are the ones who make it to the military's in these countries, and if it comes between training evil people who will re-take the country and help US national interests vs. those who only want to destroy the US, it unfortunately becomes clear who will receive training.
Just saw footage of the protest on RT news, Russia's propaganda news channel in the USA and thought it interesting. I think it is especially interesting because this would never make it to US mainstream media.
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