Two days ago President Obama authorized the deployment to Uganda of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. forces to help regional forces “remove from the battlefield” – meaning capture or kill – Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and senior leaders of the LRA.But they'll just be there for a few months or something.
The forces will ultimately go to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the permission of those countries.
The president made this announcement in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Friday afternoon, saying that “deploying these U.S. Armed Forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa.”
A Defense Department official tells ABC’s Luis Martinez at the Pentagon that the U.S. troops will be in Africa “for a few months in an advisory role.”Can't wait for the grievance industry to whine about imperialist America invading African countries.
Update, via Allahpundit.
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, operated in the north from bases in southern Sudan. The LRA committed numerous abuses and atrocities, including the abduction, rape, maiming, and killing of civilians, including children. In addition to destabilizing northern Uganda from bases in Sudan, the LRA congregated in the Bunia area in eastern Congo. They linked up with the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR) and other rebel groups that were battling with forces from the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD).Horrifying stuff, indeed. Still, why are we utilizing forces here and not in any number of other conflicts? And what is the specific mission here?
The LRA continued to kill, torture, maim, rape, and abduct large numbers of civilians, virtually enslaving numerous children. Although its levels of activity diminished somewhat compared with 1997, the area that the LRA targeted grew. The LRA sought to overthrow the Ugandan Government and inflicted brutal violence on the population in northern Uganda. LRA forces also targeted local government officials and employees. The LRA also targeted international humanitarian convoys and local NGO workers.
The LRA abducted large numbers of civilians for training as guerrillas. Most victims were children and young adults. The LRA abducted young girls as sex and labor slaves. Other children, mainly girls, were reported to have been sold, traded, or given as gifts by the LRA to arms dealers in Sudan. While some later escaped or were rescued, the whereabouts of many children remain unknown.
In particular, the LRA abducted numerous children and, at clandestine bases, terrorized them into virtual slavery as guards, concubines, and soldiers. In addition to being beaten, raped, and forced to march until exhausted, abducted children were forced to participate in the killing of other children who had attempted to escape. Amnesty International reported that without child abductions, the LRA would have few combatants. More than 6,000 children were abducted during 1998, although many of those abducted later escaped or were released. Most human rights NGOs placed the number of abducted children held captive by the LRA at around 3,000, although estimates varied substantially.
10 comments:
Hmm. Well, the LRA leaders are certainly on any sensible better-off-dead list. It is funny though how such military moves, had GWB done them, would have resulted in wailing, gnashing of teeth, sack cloth and ashes from the left are greeted with <crickets> when done by The One.</crickets>
I feel safer already
How did a chicken in every pot become a special forces unit in every conflict? I'm sorry, what exactly did we get out of this?
And how does this represent an immediate threat to our national security, requiring deployment of combat troops without congressional authorization?
Why send troops to Uganda, there's nothing there but a few million empty headed Africans ... you know ... like Obama. That is where he comes from. Maybe one of his relatives is running for political office and Obama is just helping out.
Thugs ahoy!
There are conflicts and atrocities being committed all over the African continent. It's a cesspool of tribal war, greed, corruption, and bloodbaths. It's been that way for centuries. My take is we shouldn't lob any bombs or send any troops unless it's to kill an enemy during war. Last I checked, the Lord’s Resistance Army wasn't on any list of terrorist organizations or part of a declared enemy.
Clinton pulled a similar "wag the dog" in Somalia.
Considering the horror being inflicted on the poor people depicted in the accompanying article and any respectable news outlets, by folks that could be only be descibed as the Manson Family with thousands of AK-47s, how could the deployment of 100 SF personelle be seen as anything but an act of human decency by the greatest country in the world?
We have an armed force that is highly professional, humane, and blooded in battle. 100 of our warriors in that benighted region would do more to make the average Ugandan's life better than any number of UN missions or NGOs. And, yeah, we should just do it because we can and because it's the right thing to do.
#Occupy Uganda!! More Nobel Peace-prizes for everyone who's unemployed!
Somehow I get the feeling that the perverted advisors to Omama are cooking up this "adventure" in the process of some kind of re-election strategy. Maybe someone should tell them that Idi Amin is gone to the great cauldron of human hors d'oeuvres in the sky. Hell's bells, we could have sent a couple of dozen thugs from the projects here in Los Angeles to take care of this thug in Uganda. WTF!
Iraq. Afghanistan. Lybia. Somali pirates. Now, Uganda.
I hear there's violence against American companies in Indonesia, Barry.
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