March 11, 2006: Information war can get really down and dirty, and very ugly. Case in point is how the current famine crises in north east Africa is being handled. Somalia, and surrounding areas, are suffering a long drought, and some twenty million people are in danger of starving to death. About half the people at risk are Moslems, and the Islamic world, including the wealthy oil states, have always been absent when the UN called for contributions to buy food for starving people. In this particular case, the UN was able to raise only about a tenth of what it expected from Middle Eastern countries. At the moment, the Islamic world wishes northeast Africa would just disappear. Somalia and Sudan have been bad examples of how Islam should work. Somalia is ungovernable and awash with bloody minded warlords. Sudan has unleashed government supported militias on Moslem farmers, and pretended that nothing was going on. Famine is most severe in Somalia and Sudan, two Islamic nations that, you would think, would cause other Islamic nations to pitch in with money for food aid.

This bit of information is played up in broadcasts and planted media stories in Islamic nations. Since the media in most Islamic countries is either controlled by the government or political parties, it's often difficult to get stories like this out. The only time you ever hear about this in the West is when some enterprising reporter breaks a story about the CIA paying newspapers to run stories like, well, Islamic nations not helping to feed the starving in other Islamic nations. It's also the same reason why Islamic radical groups, if they have the resources, will pitch in with food aid, and publicize the hell out of it. But even then, it gets people thinking about who is providing most of the aid for starving Moslems. It's the West, and spreading this knowledge around the Islamic world makes the Islamic terrorists look a little less attractive.