It’s just a bunch of Africans, so no one really cares, but I found this passage interesting:

The Islamists are making rapid gains - yesterday they took Baladwayne, 20 miles from the Ethiopian border. The Ethiopians have moved troops to the frontier backed up by armour and Hind helicopter gunships. Somalis remember only too well that the Ethiopian invasion of the 1990s began with attacks by such gunships.

At the same time the parliament of Somalia’s transitional federal government, which has set up its headquarters in internal exile at Baidoa, wants foreign troops “to restore stability”. Diplomats believe this gives the Ethiopians an excuse to send troops across the border.

The Islamists vehemently reject the idea of foreign forces. Hundreds of their supporters demonstrated yesterday in Mogadishu against the Baidoa government, chanting, “We don’t need foreign troops”.

Meanwhile, the business community in Mogadishu, who have bankrolled the Islamists, warned that the introduction of foreign soldiers will strengthen the young militant fundamentalists in the Islamist movement led by Ayro at the expense of the moderates.

The “moderate” face of the Islamist movement is Sheikh Ahmed Sharif, keen to talk to the Western media to show it has responsible leaders. Asked about Ayro, with his alleged links to al-Qa’ida, he told The Independent: “The claims made against him by the Americans are exaggerated. As far as we know, he is a normal citizen trying to help Somalia. As far as Afghanistan is concerned, anyone can go there, why not?”

Ayro has only given one interview, to the local radio and television station Horn Afrik, and stated he was unhappy with what went on the air. A day later, two grenades were lobbed into Horn Afrik’s offices.

Some public figures in Mogadishu hold, however, that Western intelligence is creating the “myth of Ayro”, a figure close to the Islamist leadership said. “It is the American way, they paint a man out to be a monster and sooner or later the man becomes that monster. Just remember how Zarqawi became so famous.”

Two things pop into my mind. First: should I perhaps be dedicating my life to the reduction of the arms trade? Last time I checked, there weren’t gigantic factories making high tech gunships and laser weapons in most African nations, said nations also usually being rather poor. When I think about African struggles, I can’t help but wonder if there is some sick desire on the part of arms merchants to use Africa as a showcase of sorts, the better to market their products of death to rich nations. The second point that bothers me has to do with the intersection of racism and ignorance. Most Americans have no idea what’s been going on in this region, and given their willingness to believe ridiculous lies like Saddam = Osama = Satan, I can see how Ayro could be next in that calculus of fantasy.