Kentley salmon is an africa correspondent for the economist. Heis based in tecar and visited a major training exercise in ivory coast last month. There there were soldiers from the ivory coast, from gana, from niger and elsewhere learning from european and american commanders. These drills are called operation flintlock,. The idea is that they would help soldiers and special forces in the region get an edge over insurgents. But in a way, these trainings also hallided some of the weaknesses of the regional forces themselves and of the approach of western partners.