good-gollymissmolly:

And I do respect their belief and their willingness to fight for it.

However, the fact of the matter is that American soldiers have not HAD to die for our freedom since World War II.  And it’s disgusting that the government’s propaganda is able to convince millions of men and women that they have to.

Now now, that’s not true (referring to the part I bolded).

Our invasion of Afghanistan was warranted. Yes, in retrospect, it was a self-inflicted conflict. But we were still attacked, and we can’t let attacks on our soil go unchallenged. It’s good that we chased bin Laden to the ends of the Earth like we did.

Though you know me, I obviously agree with you for the most part. Korea, Vietnam, our involvements in Israel’s battles, Kuwait, Iraq, funding the Mujahideen and Saddam Hussein, etc. all were not necessary and were unwarranted. But I stand by the belief that the War in Afghanistan was a somewhat proper course of action (I say “somewhat” because it’s evident that we’ve been there longer than the circumstances necessitated).

I mean, refuting this again would be beating a dead horse. In fact, by now, the EMTs came, revived the horse, nursed it back to health, and then beat it to death again. It’s still astounding to me how, with the overwhelming evidence that Invisible Children is fiscally irresponsible, that people can still support it. And if they don’t care about that, what about its lies? And its hypocrisy. And it perpetuating war.

Nothing happening with this Kony 2012 campaign is doing any good. I think proving the point time and time again has just exhausted me. Really, these people have been emotionally assaulted by the videos, pushed into a corner, and are arguing solely on the basis that “we need to help those people!” 

Someone here said it pretty well: Doing something isn’t always as good as doing nothing. In fact, it’s worse. These people just will not accept the harsh realities of history, blowback, and the real consequences of further intervention.

Well, the first thing we need to realize is that the situation in Central Africa is not restricted to Uganda. In fact, the LRA is relatively inactive in Uganda now. The main affected areas are Sudan and the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). The war being waged right now, between the LRA, the SPLA, the Sudanese government, the Ugandan government, and the DRC is chiefly over cultural differences; the main focus here is the strain between the Acholi/Langi people and the rest of Central Africa (in reality).

History teaches the best lessons: 

What must be learned is how this war came to be. How did the belligerents come into existence and where did they get their resources from? That’s always important to ask. Well, it’s simple really. There was a tug-of-war at Uganda’s initial independence from Britain. First, Milton Obote took over (after leading Uganda to independence); he was Acholi. Then, Qaddafi, receiving aid from a U.S. propped-up Egypt sent aid to Amin to take over. Well, he did. He was then overthrown in the late 70’s by an Acholi-dominated military. The regime established was ruled by, again, Obote. Later, Tito Okello would take Obote’s seat.

Well, the National Resistance Army wanted to overthrow the Acholi government in the mid-80’s. This Army was backed by Qaddafi. Again. After they took over, they instated Museveni as their President. He is still in office today, and is commonly regarded as a dictator. He doesn’t like the Acholi people too much, and they don’t like him. 

Enter the Lord’s Resistance Army, a.k.a. Kony’s Army. They view themselves as, still, the rebels. They want to overthrow the current dictatorship and replace it with another dictatorship. Though, they would be no where without the help of the Sudanese government. Sudan funnels money into the LRA. Where does Sudan get their money? I’ll say it again: Sudan gets billions per year from the U.S. We are inadvertently strengthening the LRA. 

Sudan does this because, well, they’re in a bit of a civil war as well. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army opposes the current Sudanese government. So how does Sudan want to combat that? By fueling the LRA to help them in the fight against their rebellion. There’s a very similar situation in the DRC. Invisible Children exploits these differences by redirecting the focus of the SPLA to the LRA.

So the turmoil is in all of Central Africa. Invisible Children has perpetuated the problem in a few ways: (i) they called for a ceasefire. Such a ceasefire was achieved in 2006. All that Kony did with this was shift his armies around and build up his forces. Good progress for him. (ii) they lobbied to Obama to take action and send 100 elite military-men to train the Ugandan Army and the SPLA. He did so in October of 2011. This really only enraged the LRA and Kony. (iii) they’ve pulled other factions into war.

That’s just the brief history. 

What must be taken from the history: 

If you notice, the current conflict stems from British colonization and U.S. Middle-Eastern intervention. U.S. intervention and foreign aid gave fuel to these armies, while British intervention caused cultural disputes in the first place. So we know that intervention is bad, okay.

The Solution:

Stop propping up dictators. Stop sending foreign aid to these countries that go on their own conquests. Invisible Children is helping a dictator as is. And the SPLA and Ugandan Army are guilty of the same war crimes as the LRA. These consist of rape, looting, and recruitment of child soldiers. 

So… Invisible Children helps a dictator, and uses evil armies to fight other evil armies in a civil war that was created by intervention. And their solution is more intervention. No. Not going to fly. 

Stop the funding and you stop the wars. Really, all our intervention would do is bring more people into the war, destroy what little infrastructure these places have, displace more people, leave us at higher risk for attack, bankrupt us more, kill more people, and perpetuate the never-ending problems the region is in. 

And this is what I hated about the video so much.

Yes, please, let’s take the complex socioeconomic history of central Africa and explain it to the viewers as if they’re five-year-olds. Ignore the history of Britian’s colonization, Uganda’s independence, its current dictatorship, the army of Uganda itself, the army of Sudan People’s Liberation army, the involvement of Libya and Egypt, the history of the Acholi people, and UN involvement. Then let’s also ignore the deplorable rating that the Invisible Children organization has received from international institutions. 

The video pandered to emotions. You were bombarded with a simplistic “good guys vs. bad guys” message when it’s anything but that. It makes you want to cry with emotional songs and little video clips. Reality is much different. War is not peace and it never has been and never will be; ignoring the realities of the consequences of military intervention will help no one.

Hurts themselves by suggesting the U.S. military should train the Ugandan and Sudanese forces. This is chiefly because these same armies have been raping and looting! Invisible Children defends them because they are well-armed, but it doesn’t change the fact that they are also guilty of war crimes. 

The only hope for the Kony 2012 movement is to suggest that the United States intervene itself and find Kony (who isn’t even in Uganda anymore). This of course entails a full-out war, which I’ve already made the argument against. Well, the argument is against all intervention. Intervention has only gotten us into a deeper ditch. Seeing the solution as digging down deeper is foolish. You won’t come out the other side of the Earth, you’ll kill yourself before you even reach halfway to the center.

Invisible Children supports the dictatorship of Uganda. It therefore supports its military. Hey, did you know the Ugandan military also recruits kids in their fight? It also works with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Did you know they rape, loot, and recruit kids? 

In fact, the reason that the LRA receives funding from the Sudanese government is because the SPLA exists. The SPLA is a rebel group fighting against the government of Sudan. So of course Sudan funds the LRA to fight its common  enemy. By the way, Sudan receives funding from us every year. 

Now let’s talk about the fact that Invisible Children has been caught lying in their videos. How about the way that Invisible Children is trying to drag another war into America’s scope using these video techniques? Or it’s offensive oversimplification of Central Africa’s strained history since its colonization by Britain! It’s a good thing that the knowledge of IC’s poor ratings are available to the public.

The founders of Invisible Children, posing with weapons, with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

I quote r-i-o-t (via cliffordthecorrupt):

First off, this campaign will NOT free 15,00 children. Even if Kony was shot dead 15,000 children would not be free. This problem does not stem from one guy, no matter how evil he may be. It’s so short sighted to think that killing/arresting one guy will free child soldiers. Child soldiers are rooted into the African conflict which are rooted into a history of imperialism which annihilated the country and poverty which continues to ravage it.

Uganda was colonized by the English. Now my knowledge of Ugandan history is very limited, but the people of the North, the Acholi, were enslaved by the British and suffered all the things that come with enslavement under the Empire. The LRA are an Acholi group. And now, Invisible Children want to fund militaristic intervention. Cant we see what colonialism has already done in Africa?

Also, IC supports the Ugandan Army and Sudanese PLA which themselves violently rape, kill, loot etc. Even though Kony himself is widely understood not to be in Uganda, IC is supporting military forces which kill the child soldiers he recruits. Not only that, but the interventions aimed at killing him have led to reprisals which damage local people and kill many.

I understand that the goal here is not colonialism, but intervention and colonialism will have the same effects. And, agreeing with r-i-o-t, killing Kony will not free “15,000 children”; this is as absurd as saying that killing Bin Laden will stop Al-Qaeda. The Army would be going to war with children too, so keep that in mind. But I think the most important thing to understand, as I said before, is that this intervention will cause blowback to us by angering others. 

Let’s face the facts: the existence of the LRA itself is a bi-product of US activity. Did you know that Kony and his Lord’ Resistance Army receive money from the Sudanese government? Well, who gives billions a year to Sudan? The United States. Did you know that the LRA was started in opposition to the National Resistance Army? The NRA was the army that overthrew Tito Okelli. Okelli was Acholi (as is the Lord’s Resistance Army trying to reinstate their ideal government). Now who on Earth supported this NRA? The answer is Qaddafi. 

We have ties to Qaddafi’s rise to power (through our intervention (funding) in Egypt). This gave him a good deal of aid. Him inciting that overthrow of Okelli created this current-era mess. That all stems from us, him and the British colonization. So we really need to assess history and where our actions of interventionism has gotten the Middle-East. The answer is perpetuated war.

The Invisible Children has good intentions, but will ultimately fail the battle of diplomacy. People cheered when IC achieved a ceasefire between Uganda and Kony. Do you know what Kony did with this ceasefire? He used the time to shift his armies and build them up. It helped him. Now he’s stronger, and is pissed off at us because, hey, we’re now involved. We’ve learned that our involvements created an worsened this mess, so why would any further action be different?

The Economic Case:

Look, the United States is in no financial position to send military aid to anyone. Our country has just tipped over the 100% debt-to-GDP ratio. Empirically, states have crippled after the 120% mark. We’re not far. We’re not far from becoming the very next Greece.

So the suggestion would be one of the following to support a war in Central Africa: (i) accelerate the problems of the sovereign debt crisis and our bursting bond bubble, (ii) destroy the American economy by drastically altering our fiscal policies (to compensate for the expense) or (iii) raise taxes with no budget cuts and, again, putting our economy into a further slump. In all of these scenarios, the monetization of debt is still required. 

The State-of-Our-Military Case:

So we’re still fighting an unnecessary war in Afghanistan. How much is this costing us? A lot. We’re not truly out of Iraq. This is also costing us too much. And we’re bombing other countries still.

But wait! We’re now on the verge of going to war with Iran! We’ve imposed tough economic sanctions and have their borders surrounded with military bases. So, two full-out wars, a quasi-war, and on the verge of a third full-out war. Our hands are full. Can we really afford, militarily of fiscally, to engage in a fourth war?

The Blowback Case:

Isn’t this self explanatory? Every time we intervene anywhere, we make the entire world a less safe place. Let’s think back: we overthrew a leader in Iran in the 1950’s to “protect the global economy from a socialist”. Later, this man killed his people, thus inciting riots against him. This brought on the Ayatollah. He oppressed his people. So Iran was in turmoil.

How did we handle that? We funded Saddam Hussein and prepared him to go to war with Iran. So we firmed-up a dictator to fight a dictator in a distressed country that just overthrew the dictator we established. Charming. And this killed many people, and angered people like Osama Bin Laden and other radicals. Our intervention brought about hatred that eventually brought two attacks to our soil, killed millions of people, displaced millions more, and ripped apart countries. 

That’s just one quick example. What about how sanctions have always left poor people and children starving? Or how the funding of the Mujahideen created Bin Laden? Or how the Treaty of Versailles created Hitler? The case against interventionism is a heavy one, backed with history of blowback. It’s not in the best interest of the United States, nor the world, for it to become involved in a 25-year old war. We’re just going to end up hurting the people in the region more, creating more radical groups, and causing more death.