ThiS iS a BLoG

KONY 2012

Raising awareness is great, it really is.  Building schools and early-warning radio networks in Uganda is definitely a worthwhile endeavor. Don’t get me wrong. But this Kony fellow, disgusting war criminal that he is, isn’t going to be brought down because we all put up posters and wore bracelets. 100 U.S. Army “advisors” who have no active participation in combat operations against the man and his “Lord’s Resistance Army” are our best hope? They’ve been searching for this man for years, and still have yielded no results (No discredit to any of those working over there to find him, I’m sure they’re doing their absolute best with the limited manpower and resources available). The man has an ARMY protecting him, he’s not going to sit around and let us arrest him; he’s a ruthless murderer. The video, and the Kony 2012 movement in general, call for us to “STOP AT NOTHING” to take him down and urge us to contact our policymakers to press for US support. What would you have America do, though? The ‘stop at nothing’ motto would seem to tell us that we should be pursuing the fall of Kony to the utmost, sending our own US Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors over there to actively wage war against this horrid child murderer. And if that’s what the movement is proposing, more power to ‘em. Sometimes we need to make sacrifice and truly, aggressively fight evil in the most real way. 

But I can’t help thinking that as soon as US troops set foot in Uganda (or whatever region of Africa Kony is last known to be hiding in) and something goes wrong, and the reality of a BRUTAL, JUNGLE WARFARE sets in, 95% of this whole movement will quickly drop their “Stop at nothing” attitude. Allegations of “America’s meddling in other nations’ business again” and “we’re only there for our own financial gain”, etc. will quickly follow, and what do you know, we’ll be stuck ass-deep in another far-off land waging war against an elusive enemy with little-to no support from the American public. Finding Kony will not be a quick, easy, “put him in handcuffs” fix. It will be a long, bloody, drawn out conflict because he is becoming more and more the cornered animal, and he’s not going to give up his power without a fight to the death. He simply won’t. History has shown us that many a time with every other dictator. This means dead American troops. This means dead child soldiers. This may mean dead innocent civilian bystanders. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to belittle these tragedies in any way. It is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE that innocent people die as a direct effect of the actions of armies at war. We can exercise restraint, discipline, compassion, and moral values (and we SHOULD stress them, to the highest degree) into our troops, but the sad truth is that ousting Kony will not be a happy, bloodless affair. People will get hurt, and people will die. So I write this not as a rant againt the KONY 2012 movement. This ass-face definitely needs to be stopped, and getting his name out there as a public enemy is definitely a first step. But I ask a question. WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE AMERICA DO? What’s the next step?