Chamblee54

The Kony 2012 video is a slick piece of work. It pulls at the heartstrings, and has motivated many people into action. Some look at this emotional outpouring, and wonder, what is the catch?
There is little doubt that Joseph Kony is not a nice man. (He also has a name that is easy for Americans to pronounce. Most of the rest of the players here have jawbreaker names. Americans love to hate marquee bad guys, and having a simple name helps.) The people he is fighting (and who would benefit from American intervention) are little better, and may be worse. There is also doubt as to the benefit of arresting one man. The Palestinians did not give up their struggle when Yassir Arafat died.
The world is full of suffering. The children of Gaza can tell a few stories. The Democratic Republic of Congo has been through hell since the Belgians decided they wanted an empire. The DRC (a possible refuge today for Mr. Kony) was the scene of what some call the African World War. “The war was a conflict which, according to a report released in January by the International Rescue Committee relief organization, killed an estimated 5.4 million people between August 1998 and April 2007— many from health-related concerns caused by the social and economic disruption of the ongoing conflict.”
The war began as a rebellion against the kleptocracy of Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga. “In late 1996, using a rebellion by the Banyamulenge as cover, an umbrella group of Congolese rebel factions calling themselves the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL) launched an insurgency to oust Mobutu with extensive Rwandan and Ugandan backing. Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni were both eager to see the duplicitous Mobutu fall so that they might pursue their own interests in Congo—a country of vast mineral wealth.
With longtime rebel leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila at the helm, the AFDL and their foreign patrons made quick progress across Congo’s vast interior, marching westward to the capital, Kinshasa, with tacit approval provided by the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton, still stung by its failure to do anything to halt the Rwandan genocide two years earlier.”
5.4 million people is a lot. While this conflict was raging, attention in America was focused on Monica Lewinsky, the twin towers, and keeping “next Hitler” Saddam Hussein from getting weapons of mass destruction. (In the video, Mr. Kony is compared to Hitler.) Considering how well our attempts at regime change worked in Iraq, we might have made the right move in staying out of the DRC.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni is the opponent of Joseph Kony, and his Lord’s Resistance Army. Mr. Museveni has largely driven Mr. Kony out of Uganda. There has been a lot of collateral damage, which can be expected to increase with more western intervention.
Getting back to the video, it is not a calm discussion of the facts. It is a fund raising plea. It is widely reported now that 32% of the money raised here goes to actual relief efforts. They did not scrimp on the production of the video.
One thing the video does not mention is that Jason Russell, the narrator, is an aggressive Jesus Worshiper. So is Joseph Kony. Their methods of evangelizing are different.
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.