The Djibouti Nannies

The U. S. has a military base in Djibouti which is located in the horn of Africa adjacent to Ethiopia and Somalia. It was staffed after the 9/11 attacks to prevent al Qaeda from setting up shop in that location while we focused on them in Afghanistan. As we read in the papers, things are not going according to plan, it seems. Radical Islamist did set up in Somalia and only recently did the forces in Ethiopia have to move into Mogadishu to drive them out. Whether or not the radicals stay out is still an open question, but what of the military we established in Djibouti to prevent what the Ethiopians had to undo? Well, according to an editorial in the IBD today, our military is very busy putting up schools and vaccinating camels in an effort to keep some of the 80 million Muslims in the Horn of Africa from being sympathetic to the call of al Qaeda. Maybe the goal makes sense, but the Bush administration seems to be continuing its inclination to use the military to do things which seem more appropriate for a Peace Corps.