Most Popular This Week
- Not to Worry, Rape Victims Who Want An Abortion: We Won't Charge You With Felony Tampering With Evidence, Just Your Doctor
- The Non Zero-Sum Society: How the Rich Are Destroying the US Economy
- The Right of the People, Even At the Airport
- To End Extreme Poverty, Let’s Try Ending Extreme Wealth
- The Poison We Never Talk About in School
- The Non Zero-Sum Society: How the Rich Are Destroying the US Economy
- Don’t Put a Fork in It: On the Perils of Genetically Engineered Salmon
- Don’t Buy Lies About Social Security
- UN Report: Israel Must Immediately Dismantle Settlements or Face ICC
- Domestic Fair Trade: A Plea to UNFI and Whole Foods for Justice
Popular content
Today's Top News
Obama Sends US Combat Troops to Uganda
US president says he is deploying 100 combat troops to Uganda to help efforts against Lord's Resistance Army rebels.
US President Barack Obama has announced he is deploying 100 "combat-equipped" troops to Uganda to help efforts against rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), who Washington accuse of grievous human rights abuses.
US President Barack Obama will deploy troops to Uganda to help fight rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (AFP/File, Stuart Price) The US troops, subject to the approval of national authorities, could also deploy from Uganda into South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of the Congo, Obama said in a message to Congress.
LRA rebels are accused of murdering, raping and kidnapping thousands of people in the four nations.
Tens of thousands of people have died in their 20-year war with security forces in northern Uganda.
"These forces will act as advisors to partner forces that have the goal of removing from the battlefield Joseph Kony and other senior leadership of the LRA," Obama said, but warned they would not lead the fighting themselves.
"Although the US forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces.
"They will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defence. All appropriate precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of US military personnel during their deployment."
The president said a small group of troops deployed on Wednesday and that additional forces will deploy over the next month.
Kony is accused of war crimes and wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The civil war effectively ended in 2006 when a peace process was launched, but Kony and his top commanders continue to commit atrocities in remote areas of neighbouring countries.
General Carter Ham, the head of US Africa Command, said last week that his best estimate was that Kony was probably in the Central African Republic.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
135 Comments so far
Show AllThese figures may well be true, Fuster, but if you want your quote to be authoritative, there is no point in quoting an organization, HRW, that is a front for the US state department, when the USA is involved, or intending to be involved.
if you look at the Christian Science Monster excerpt it lists a separate report from a different organization. dig it up and you won't find a heck of a lot of variance.
there are also reports from a couple of Euro agencies.
no matter what kind of political orientation one might have, there is nothing decent to be said about these guys.
Now if you had posted any information from a Ugandan perspective or group it might be something we could talk about. I know how many children have been abducted and what their crimes are, so do the people of Uganda and in the villages where they were all related by clan. There are steps being taken by villagers, do you have any idea what they are?
p.s. Take a gander at the picture on this article and tell me what you see.
Far too long the west and the AU (African Union) has done next to nothing to curb the LRA. It's about bloody time.
BCR
The rebels, in the Ruwenzoris, are elated to the Benirwanda (Tutsi and Hutu) who "occupied" Zaire after the fall of Mobutu. There may be a connection with the roving armies of the Congo who are responsible for the rape and genocide taking place in the eastern Congo. Don't be suprised if this is just the start of a major police action in central africa.
Where once we had a president, we now have a monarch, and a dangerous one at that.
"U.S. Ieaders commit war crimes as a matter of institutional necessity, as their imperial role calls for keeping subordinate peoples in their proper place and assuring a "favorable climate of investment" everywhere. They do this by using their economic power, but also ... by supporting Diem, Mobutu, Pinochet, Suharto, Savimbi, Marcos, Fujimori, Salinas, and scores of similar leaders. War crimes also come easily because U.S. Ieaders consider themselves to be the vehicles of a higher morality and truth and can operate in violation of law without cost. It is also immensely helpful that their mainstream media agree that their country is above the law and will support and rationalize each and every venture and the commission of war crimes."
(Edward Herman)
don't know why the US should be involved, but the sooner the Lord's Resistance Army goes out of business the better.
I agree with your sentiment, but recent history suggests U.S. "boots on the ground" intervention is as likely to bolster recruitment as it is to eradicate the offenders.
Scumbag war-making yet again!
What is it going to take to bring this sick f**k down?
How many people has the US murdered in the past 20 years?
Hey, hey, Barakus say how many countries are we at war with today?
What happened? Did they discover oil there?
Nope, but the CIA already has it under control.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOfek1-L6Lc&feature=player_embedded
That is disturbing...
I thought that Uganda are sending troops here. They will be arriving at NY harbour sometime tomorrow night. Maybe they can straightenen things out. We sure have not done a good job.
We DO NOT need to be sending anymore troops anywhere. This is insane.
Yes. There is oil in Uganda, a lot of it up by Lake Albert. It's in the North. That's where the LRA was active for years. The marines built a base up by Lake Albert about 3 years ago. They are protecting their assets. Even Ollie North was through there chatting with hotel owners near Murcheson Falls Park.
However, the LRA are a bad bunch. I wish it were only for a good human rights cause, but it is probably about the oil.
When I lived and worked in Uganda 10 years ago, a number of geologists I met in Kampala told me that they had discovered vast untapped resources of oil in northwest Uganda. I was wondering when the US would finally send in troops to secure the area.
Looks like AFRICOM is on the move in Africa. More war.
Exactly.
Here comes another war of choice from the Nobel Peace Prize designee Barry. This Manchurian candidate from the greedy-rich corporations has only one focus in his miserable little life--keep the money spigot of the Amerikan treasury wide open and flowing into the military industrial complex's off-shore banks.
Every time I hear his whiny voice or see his skinny ass, I want to vomit.
"Although the US forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces."
Stirring up trouble like the best of them. - That makes it Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Uganda...
Not exactly subtle in the quest for world domination, that Pentagon-gang.
Me thinks this same crowd has in the past berated the west/us/nato/eu for doing nothing to curtail the LRA.
Here I'll try to fit in: Go LRA! Defeat the imperialist, capitalist invaders! Continue your proud struggle for independence, or something.....
BCR
The LRA is just the excuse. The US have done nothing nor even talked about what has been going on in Central Africa other than to support one set of murderous warlords against others. This is all about the grandstrategy. Attacking Libya and the pan-Africanist ideal was the first step, deputizing the AU in Somalia was another. Now we have a real push into the heart of Africa.
Note, this action is out of the blue, without congressional approval. Once the US has gone down the imperial road, it will be hard or impossible to pull it back. Even Bush got approval from Congress prior to the war in Iraq. Obama doesn't have to as the awful precedent has been set.
"LRA rebels are accused of murdering, raping and kidnapping thousands of people..."
Just like the US Army, US Marines, US Air Force and the US Navy. About the only US armed force that has NOT been accused or PROVEN to have committed the aforementioned crimes is the US Coast Guard, but only because they are never deployed overseas!
nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
let us all see your proof that the US armed forces has a policy advocating the use of rape.
It's right there in the torture FM.
and you have a copy right under your tin foil hat, no doubt.
fuster, you serve a good purpose by asking pesky and often loaded questions to keep me thinking even when I do not agree with you but I state here again that you are a big coward by calling people names protected by your alibi. Next time you do so show me that you are not a coward by publishing your true name, address, and phone number right behind the name calling. I am almost sure you will not do so because cowards prefer to hide.
if you want to put up an email address, I'll write to you and we can talk about it.
I do not discuss calling names with anyone and that includes you. I will only believe what you write when you get serious and stop throwing around cheap insults. Nice try though to get my e-mail address first! Why don't you be #1?
OK.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6152118.stm - elements of the US Army rape a 14 year old girl, then murder HER ENTIRE FAMILY TO COVER IT UP.
http://nativenotes.net/us-army-covers-up-19-year-olds-rape-and-murder.html - The rape and murder of one of their own.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-forgotten-story-of-rape-and-murder-in-kosovo-americanstyle-622977.html - The rape and murder of an 11 year old girl in Kosovo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Germany - Quote from the article: "In Taken by Force J Robert Lilly estimates the number of rapes committed by U.S. servicemen in Germany to be 11,040."
http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/08/vietnam-war-greiner-lai - Rape and murder by US Forces before and after Mai Lai in Viet Nam.
From the Wikipedia entry on "War Rape": "Secret wartime files made public only in 2006 reveal that American GIs committed 400 sexual offences in Europe, including 126 rapes in England, between 1942 and 1945. A study by Robert J. Lilly estimates that a total of 14,000 civilian women in England, France and Germany were raped by American GIs during World War II. It is estimated that there were around 3,500 rapes by American servicemen in France between June 1944 and the end of the war and one historian has claimed that sexual violence against women in liberated France was common."
There ya go... that should get your right-wing Koch-sucking mind just a-whirrin' with all the salacious possibilities of US soldiers doin' th' deed while in uniform.
Galen, you jacker, lean the difference between individuals and organizations.
14 000 rapes divided by 6 000 000 American servicemen in Europe = 0.00233333333
your 14,000 rapes does not indicate a policy of rape.
try looking up the number of German women raped by Russian troops during the last year of the war if you want to understand what a POLICY of rape by an army really is and stop talking shit.
US imperialism is violating, raping & executing its OWN citizens, as for INVADING an other country, THE ACT ITSELF is the utmost form of RAPE.
THE WORLD HAS LOST COUNT BUT IS STILL WATCHING. A MATTER OF TIME
Hope you are doing well SIOUX ROSE, IT APPEARS WHEN THE CAT IS AWAY THE LITTLE MOUSE IS DANCING.
THOSE WHO ARE DOING IT & THOSE WHO ARE DEFENDING THEM MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE WITH OR WITHOUT A UNIFORM.
A matter of time.
No terror no torture just truth.
Would you prefer the LRA to be allowed to continue their actions?
If not, then what viable solutions do you have to curtail their activities?
None of us have viable solutions. Sending in troops is not one. At best, it's an exercise in being seen to be doing something - at worst, watch this space.
Portraying a failure to prevent something as having "allowed" it is either cheap rhetoric or an indication of an authoritarian mindset - hey, nothing happens unless it's allowed, right?
the dual meanings of "sanction" spring to mind.
'The government sanctions sanctions'. I like it. Approval and penalty - the carrot and the stick rolled into one. Nice point on page 1 of this (4:13 pm EST) too, by the way.
Sadly it seems our elected representatives (ha!) are more interested in duel meanings - except in the sense of equality of force.
Cheap rhetoric?! "Then they came for me." comes to mind. As for authoritative mindset, well better that then your ostrich-mindset. Hey, nothing happens if you ignore it hard enough.....
Yep. That's the kind of thing.
The politician's syllogism : Something should be done / This is something / Therefore we should do this. Portray things as a binary choice between the action you support and 'doing nothing'. Bush and Blair loved this approach. I'm surprised people are still susceptible to it.
Even if Washington's motives are as pure as yours, war doesn't help. But I suspect that if there was an international standard for humanitarian intervention that specified that no intervening nation (or its corporations) could profit from it, we wouldn't see this argument used by those in office.
'We' in the West are not the good guys any more (if we ever were). 'Our' mask has slipped. Believing we can fix the world requires no less obliviousness than a lot of other approaches.
Care to join me in my sandbox?
Ambiguity serves better then binary choice? Were that true, MLK, Gandhi, Tutu, etc; are wrong.
The "west" is left with little choice when the "middle kingdom", "tsars" and bharata mata remain indifferent to actions beyond their borders. Furthermore, your proffered "what if'" solution fails both actual reality and viability standards. Clean out your sandbox.......
Are we talking about the same people? We're talking about Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Junior and Desmond Tutu advocating sending in US troops?
“Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.”
“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
(King)
“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”
(Tutu)
“The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives”
“Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong”
“What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea.”
(Gandhi)
When there are no good solutions, the answer isn't to try a bad one. Sending in US troops might work to increase US influence or for people interested in being seen to be doing something, but will it really help the Ugandan people? I suspect not, but I also suspect that that's not the real reason they're being sent.
The idea that the West has no choice sounds suspiciously like the old "White Man's Burden" arguments.
Ambiguity serves better than binary choice? Maybe...
Do you truly believe non-violence would prove a viable counter to the LRA? Somehow I doubt even you are that naive. The west can either assist or ignore the issue and do nothing just like China, Russia and India. Ambiguity is the last refugee of the selfish. FYI, I just came up with that just now, no BS..........
Did you mean "refuge" instead of "refugee"?
The answers to your points appear in my posts above.
To TrouserAttack “When the
(((missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.” (Tutu) )))
thanks for the quote very powerful, coming from a man of the cloth.
No state terror no torture just truth.
No to FAKE humanitarian rescue by EMPIRE,
DISMANTLE & REMOVER MILITARY BASIS WORLD WIDE NOW.
"Would you prefer the LRA to be allowed to continue their actions?"
Which has been our de facto policy for . . . how many years now? As always, the relevant questions are: Why now, and what's the real reason?
Actually we have sold them billions of dollars in weapons, just no humanitarian aid.
Hmm. What is the point of interfering with the internal affairs of Africa? If they want to wipe each other then let them do so; Fuck'em.
No doubt Rhino, Elephant, Gorilla, Cheetah, etc populations would rebound once the stupid hairless monkeys wipe themselves out...
Obama is replacing Gaddafi's foreign aid to Africa with Armed Killers.
you know, I heard all about Gaddafi pledging aid. said he was going to commit $97 billion dollars.
even heard that put $5 billion in a fund.
never heard much about much money being dispensed, but did read that Gambia got seven tractors from Libya.
Hey moron, something like 20 000 Libyan anti-aircraft missiles have gone missing since the CIA/NATO backed 'rebellion' in libya started, back when Obomer promised no US boots on the ground (apparently US Special Forces and elements of the 81st Airborne are turning up in US military hospitals in Germany, all saying they have been shot to shit by Khaddafi's boys), and a commitment of "days, not weeks"... is it too much to hope you'll volunteer your worthless redneck ass to go fight in that radioactive sand pit that used to be Iraq, the 'Cradle of Civilization', and in so doing be flying on a US military transport that sucks an SA-7 warhead into the engine?
No? No volunteering to go and die for the 1%?
Thought so.