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"It will probably be in the hundreds, not the thousands," he said Tuesday.

LOL! What will be in the hundreds is the number of trainees who actually attempt to perform the functions for which they will be trained, but they will likely be a decided minority of the trainees. And in order to be effective they HAVE to be a danger to the warlords and their followers, any of whom, if killed, will immediately be "civilians".  

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed Nov 18th, 2009 at 06:08:32 PM EST
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The hundreds refers to the EU troops doing the training. There is talk of training 2000 to 8000 Smali troops, but also worries that they would defect to the pirate gangs.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Nov 18th, 2009 at 06:23:30 PM EST
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