Nine year olds in combat

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Children Carry Guns for a U.S. Ally, Somalia
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: June 13, 2010

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Awil Salah Osman prowls the streets of this shattered city, looking like so many other boys, with ripped-up clothes, thin limbs and eyes eager for attention and affection. But Awil is different in two notable ways: he is shouldering a fully automatic, fully loaded Kalashnikov assault rifle; and he is working for a military that is substantially armed and financed by the United States.

“You!” he shouts at a driver trying to sneak past his checkpoint, his cherubic face turning violently angry. “You know what I’m doing here!” He shakes his gun menacingly. “Stop your car!” The driver halts immediately. In Somalia, lives are lost quickly, and few want to take their chances with a moody 12-year-old.

It is well known that Somalia’s radical Islamist insurgents are plucking children off soccer fields and turning them into fighters. But Awil is not a rebel. He is working for Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, a critical piece of the American counterterrorism strategy in the Horn of Africa.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/africa/14somalia.html?ref=world

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[unhappycamper]

1. Great.

So now we can add child soldiers to roster. :sarcasm:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. roster of shame... did anyone notice how well-written this article was?

The author is a master at his craft

[Bitter_Cling]

3. An excellent example

Of how our enemy is ruthless and will never stop trying to kill us.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. also an example of the next generation of terrorists that we're hatching worldwide