KONY 2012

     Joseph Kony...................Invisible Children........................Justice.
History: Joseph Kony
     Joseph Kony is the leader of a guerrilla group that started in Northern Uganda. Long story short, and please feel free to do your own research on this, Kony claimed he was visited by spirits and this created a support group for him. Due to the hostilities that were already occurring in the region, that being the Ugandan Bush War that lead to the overthrow of Acholi President Tito Okello, the tone was set for his rising. Largely this came to fruition because after the National Resistance Army (NRA) removed Tito Okello from power the Ugandan government failed to stay influencial in the Acholi region. Kony's cultic views became popular due to the people's resentment against the Ugandan government. Basically the movement that spurred on the Bush War was called the Holy Spirit Movement, and Kony created a spiritual group along those same pillars. Therefore the people found a leader to continue to oppose the NRA. Kony claimed to be establishing a theocratic state. Kony eventually headed southwest towards Gulu, he encountered some soldiers of the Ugandan National Liberation Front and recruited them. From then on he met some disgruntled members of the Ugandan military (NRA) and recruited them, which included a Commander by the name of Odong Latek who convinced Kony to use military tactics. At this point the Ugandan military (Now known as the Uganda People's Defense Force) openly went against Kony's forces. All of this happened from 1986-1988. Since 1986, when he started rising as a prominent figure, he had been recruiting kids. He obtained thousands of children, while killing tens of thousands. People of Uganda were forced to move to cities before night fell so as to protect their children and themselves. Kony displaced some 1.8 million people this way. They moved because he would take the children and kill the family and neighbors so they had no where to go, but with him. In 1992, Kony kidnapped 139 girls from two schools. Kony not only used the kidnapped children to fight, but also as sex-slaves. Kony's forces were reduced to hundreds versus the previous thousands after the Ugandan military got serious. The force changed their name three times from the United Holy Salvation Army to the United Democratic Christian Army to eventually the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). For about ten years the Sudanese government supported Kony and the LRA because the Ugandan government was supporting a rebellious uprising in South Sudan. Sudan, by the way, borders the north of Uganda.  In 2005, Kony and four other members were indicted for crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court (ICC). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRg0Qc2EHeo&feature=relmfu; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii81553ZfTw&feature=relmfu Since then, the UPDF has killed two of the five ICC fugitives. At this point the Sudanese government withdrew its support for Kony, I'll explain why in my next post. This leads us pretty much to present day. Now Kony doesn't operate much in Uganda, but instead in regions with weak governments like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Sudan. His numbers are not a massive threat like they use to be, this doesn't mean they couldn't be again though. Especially if he is given a haven to grow in, like Sudan.

History: Invisible Children
     Invisible Children is an organization that seeks to bring an end to Kony, the LRA, and the abduction of children in this region of Africa. This organization has been around for some time, but has just recently made news with the KONY 2012 video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc&feature=relmfu that exploded over Facebook with 80 million views. The purpose was to raise awareness of this situation by bringing attention to Kony. Even though the information is outdated, or portrayed as common day facts in the video, it is still historically correct, which is something people seem to miss in the "quick to judge era" of internet were people can hide behind their computers and shout. The backlash has been three fold: 1. Information is no longer accurate in video. 2. Organization is making a profit by some sort of scheme. 3. Plan will not work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLVY5jBnD-E; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DO73Ese25Y&feature=related (This last video here is not entirely accurate, Invisible Children is active in communities, not just with UPDF.
     So readers, this is the history of the situation at hand.

Justice:
     No matter what you conclude about Invisible Children or the current affairs of the Ugandan nation state, Kony is one power ridden, cult leading, asshole. He should be brought to face his consequences or possibly just drink his own Kool-aid :).

My Take: 
     Let me address this Invisible Children program first. The video could have been better done with information, but people need to understand the video was also designed to educate people who have no idea whats occurred over the past 20+ years. More importantly, its designed to make you care about it and achieve one goal, to stop this man. The fact that Kony should be brought to justice makes me support this organization even if its not through monetary means, unless it comes out that they were not trying to achieve this objective, I don't believe that will ever happen. I personally believe its motives and operations are in fact pure, well calculated, and as you'll see in my conclusion of this post, down right profound and prolific. The video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRx8aXaJ_Cs I believe is truthful. I do not understand why people judge an organization for using money it raises to support the organization itself, not just the operational goal, to me this is a common sense expenditure http://www.invisiblechildren.com/financials.html. Its like trying to save for food for the future, but not buying food to sustain you to get to the future. I also think the operational goals are practical. It allows for the world to get involved, even "on the ground" by sending in advisers to help eliminate this threat completely. This is positive for how other countries view us. It allows the local government to take credit for the outcome. This in turn is positive for regional moral and support of the government by the people which brings further stability. There are a lot of reasons why this is a good thing for a nation state (country) to be involved in from a foreign policy point of view (read Last Notes below). Before anyone says anything, I know the UPDF doesn't have the best record in terms of treating people well, but its significantly better, and getting better, then guerrilla groups of the region and provides more stability which is beneficial to the United States. Now, I understand that him no longer being active in Uganda means its hard to achieve the sought after objective because the Ugandan military can only be used so much, it can't travel in to Congo, Central Africa or Sudan. So therefore in that aspect the plan is flawed, but that is a plan of action to achieve a goal. However by supporting the military there we enable them to protect civilians from future threats of this nature. The goal, the mission itself, is to remove Kony's freedom by bringing him before the ICC though. In this, we can all agree is a worthy objective and upright cause. Guess what? The U.S. can go into Congo and other nations. Plus in 2008, the D.R.C., South Sudan and Uganda launched a joint military operation to find Kony and remove the LRA for good. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2963.htm This makes it easier for U.S. advisers to operate to achieve this objective. Invisible Children can achieve its goal and bring justice.

My Bottomline:
      Remove Kony's free range. Bring him before the ICC. One less guerrilla leader on this Earth may not bring total peace to a region in turmoil, but it will be justice. After all, one less man who kills for power can't be a bad thing right? If you don't like Invisible Children or trust them, that's fine. Call your Congressional representatives and let them now you want something done about Kony, both Senate and House Reps. http://votesmart.org/ it will take about 15 minutes of your time, or less. Just enter your address or zip code in the search engine at votesmart.org to figure out who represents you. Now the other comments tend to be centered around the belief that this KONY 2012 campaign is stupid because there is no way people showing support motivates action. This is simply wrong and shows a severe lack of understanding of even the most basic Civics course. Ladies and Gentleman, politicians, your representatives, are motivated to action either when left alone (to them this means there's nothing wrong besides obvious problems, national debt etc.) or when rattled with phone calls, emails, and letters (meaning a lot of people are ticked/worried about something). If they don't act to the will of the people they drastically fear not being re-elected. Want proof? Watch how early they begin their campaigns for re-election. Think they're worried about your vote/opinion? The power of your voice is potent, when you stand together with a common goal...its absolutely devastating to opposing wills. The American people have forgotten the power of their voice. Its not a joke. I assure you, many congressional members have taken note of the attention KONY 2012 received before ever receiving calls about it. If the people care enough, not through acting but just voicing concern, politicians are forced to consider action, this in an of itself makes your voice an indirect act, if you can get them too. You can say you have had a hand in ending Kony or anything else for that matter. How does it get any simpler/convenient then this for us Americans?

Last notes:
     The reason the American government hasn't overly stepped in or continued to put forth effort beyond what they have already done (sent a small force of military advisers in 2011) is that they know Americans feel that we should be focusing on us and fixing our economy. This can look bad come election year. Yet more practically, we try not to intervene where it doesn't benefit us as a nation. However, this does benefit us for two reasons, beyond the obvious, that it makes the world not hate the U.S., and we all know we need as much of that as possible. One I will talk about in my next post as it relates to the struggle in Sudan, North Korea and other nations. The other is that Uganda has been a growing economy and imports 90+ million dollars worth of our goods every year http://www.ustr.gov/countries-regions/africa/east-africa/uganda. This means its good for our economy to see them doing well. Therefore in reality, the American government should have had this problem solved years ago, but it takes a group of caring people, to make an organization, that makes a video, that gets peoples attention on Facebook. To hopefully make the government care. Politicians tend to let smaller issues go when they fight wars and have turmoil at home. We have a responsibility to not let this issue go as caring people. If this was happening to you would you want Ugandans to read this and pass on? Its so easy to do, yet a killer still runs free, and is continuing to reek havoc in the areas he is in now, even though Uganda hasn't had a reported attack since 2006. Yet, you don't have to pick up a rifle, although some of you might want to, you just have to pick up a phone and maybe encourage your network of friends to do the same.
 "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" -Edmund Burke

I know I left some points hanging, I promise I will address them in my next post regarding gas prices. I just didn't want this post to become ridiculously long.