At New York Times, "Armed U.S. Advisers to Help Fight African Renegade Group":
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday that he had ordered the deployment of 100 armed military advisers to central Africa to help regional forces combat the Lord’s Resistance Army, a notorious renegade group that has terrorized villagers in at least four countries with marauding bands that kill, rape, maim and kidnap with impunity.Well, it's certainly fits the progressive rationale for foreign military intervention: human rights. But 100 "advisers"? Sounds like how the Kennedy administration sent advisers to Vietnam and we ended up with 500,000 troops in country by the end of 1965. And boy, it's that some creepy group, the LRA. I'd be interested to hear some of the internal White House debate on the mission.
The deployment represents a muscular escalation of American military efforts to help fight the Lord’s Resistance Army, which originated as a Ugandan rebel force in the 1980s and morphed into a fearsome cultlike group of fighters. It is led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet known for ordering village massacres, recruiting prepubescent soldiers, keeping harems of child brides and mutilating opponents.
“For more than two decades, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has murdered, raped and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women and children in central Africa,” Mr. Obama wrote in a letter to Congress announcing the military deployment. “The LRA continues to commit atrocities across the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan that have a disproportionate impact on regional security.”
The decision by Mr. Obama to deploy armed military advisers into the region was welcomed by human rights advocates who have chronicled the atrocities committed by Mr. Kony and his subordinates. But it also raises the risk of putting American military personnel in harm’s way in another region while the United States is winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Anyway, see Rush Limbaugh for the critique, which I'm not necessarily endorsing, "Obama Invades Uganda, Targets Christians." (Via Memeorandum.)
5 comments:
http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/friends-of-the-44th-potus/
Enough said.
-Dave
Both sides have been committing atrocities for decades. Why now, why there. Infowars said 2 years ago that Oblamebush would work to control the African continent. ????
Sounds like a good time to invest in whatever company produces medicines for malaria.
I feel it almost compusory to assist in Uganda if we are at all able; but question your outlook that we are in a "wind down" stage in Afganistan, but will more than likely will bail out of Iraq while the getting is good.
I feel that the events in Uganda dictate compulsory actions by those with the means... I, however, can't wholly agree with your assertion that we are near "winding down" in Afganistan, although we are certainly in a suitable bail out position in Iraq.
Regards,
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