Darkseid wrote:
Danimal Collective wrote:
Pfffft, I was supporting Invisible Children before it was cool.
But seriously, when I was in college, I did a lot of work and organizing with them in '08 and '09.
While I'm glad that Kony finally has become a household name in America (he already was in the rest of the world) and I'm proud of the president and our military for undertaking missions to "get" Kony, I agree with Bill Maher in that it's not enough for us just to recognize he is a problem. He needs to be stopped and us and the world community need to make it our goal to get Kony as soon as we can. Write letters, demonstrate, make yourself heard, get involved. Shit, now that the weather is nice, me and all the other protesters are taking to the streets again. Join us?
Danimal, I normally agree with you, but you've forced my hand as of now.
Do you really think the United States should be the guys going after Kony? We're already wearing ourselves thin with all the conflicts we've become involved on and it's been a big drain on our economy. Yes, what this man is doing is horrible, but he's far from the only warlord in Africa and you seem to live in a reality where you think no one is bothering to go after him. On top of this, we need to stop giving a fuck if we're going to survive as a country, at least for a few years to fix the mess that Bush brought with him.
Plus, I'd say this entire movement just makes the situation worse, spreading a shit ton of misinformation and ignoring all the other warlords. Turning Kony into public enemy number one just makes it seem like he's the only problem in the eyes of the idiot public.
And on top of all this, you're trusting Invisible Children? A group that barely gives money to the cause they say they're raising awareness for? You know, pumping that cash into Religious propaganda and Christian camps they advertise on their channel? How is that helping with the problem of African warlords? And why would we trust a group with information six years out of date? Sounds like they don't care that much if they got the most basic information on the issue wrong.
Why bother protesting when the "cause" just makes the problem worse?
Well, yeah... that is what America should be using it's military for along with other forces.
And yeah, Invisible Children isn't the best, but they've done their job. Would we even be here talking about Kony if it wasn't for them? I mean, I don't associate with them now. The giving money to anti-gay groups skunked it for me... but religion, while I am anti-religion, is a reality we have to live with. Most of Africa isn't the kind of place where you have the luxury of picking your friends. You get help from where it comes.
But this whole argument is just a re-hash of Libya. Libya, while still being rebuilt, was an organic revolution that we supported and it paid off.
We still need to get out of Afghanistan, we still need to prevent war with Iran at all costs (which includes putting pressure on Israel and not just following along with their disastrous version of a Bush Doctrine), but at the same time we can use our influence and power for good. I have no problem killing bad guys. I have no problem using our force for rescuing hostages, saving Iranian ships, or preventing a mad man from creating killers out of children. Forget Invisible Children, their work is done, their organization for all it's faults did accomplish one goal and that goal was making Kony famous. We found bin Laden, we killed al-Alwaki, we facilitated the overthrow of Gaddafi, why can't we end the self-aggrandized rule of a war criminal? If over 700 billion of our tax dollars this year is going to the defense industry, they might as well use it for something good. It's not like we're going to get that money back if we don't accomplish that mission, the money has been spent. Might as well use the training, machines, and men and women we spent it on.
Now, this is not a call to war. This is a call for pin-point precision operations that are not only cost effective and but effective overall. This belief comes from successful Mossad operations since the formation of Israel, our own operations in getting bin Laden, and other similar type of operations that were successful in accomplishing goals with little blow back. From the point of view of a military historian, it makes sense and it shows that the western world is not deaf to the problems that plague undeveloped nations.
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