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March 12, 2012

Kony 2012: Beating the WAR-Drums


An incredible phenomenon has been sweeping the web recently.  If you haven't seen it, you eventually will.  The short documentary: KONY 2012 in a nutshell is a piece put together by InvisibleChildren, a non profit advocacy group out of San Diego, CA that has pushed toward ending child slavery, human trafficking, and by the use of military force via the ending of the life one its  leaders, an African war-lord of Uganda named Kony.

Wait? A call for assassination? Military intervention?

Yes, and top it off with 100 million views on Youtube and 1million people pledging their support.

The major push of this film is to get America's youth on board and in the name of justice, to take out an evil mini-dictator in Africa.


Who is Kony?  From Wikipedia:
Joseph Kony (pronounced IPA: [koɲ];[6] born c. 1961)[1] is a Ugandan guerrilla group leader, head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). While initially enjoying strong public support, the LRA turned brutally on its own supporters, supposedly to "purify" the Acholi people and turn Uganda into a theocracy.[2]He ordered the abduction of children to become child-sex slaves and child soldiers.[20] An estimated 66,000 children became soldiers and two million people have been internally displaced since 1986.[21


Evil:  Mentality & Ignorance:


"This movie is being shown in middle schools, in grade schools.  I've got kids calling me and saying, we need to kill him, he's hurting children!"

Evil abounds in this world.  Right now in this world, consider this: 
  1. Syria:  
    • Civil War has broken out.  The UN estimates up to 10,000 civilians have died just over the last few months alone.  An evil dictator is killing his own people.
  2. Afghanistan:
    • America's war on terror is in its' 10th year in this country.  When will it end?  This war has already surpassed the war in Vietnam as the longest war in America's history.  3,000 American troops have died thus far, upwards of 40-50,000 Taliban fighters as well.  100,000 troops are still stationed in this country
  3. Iraq:
  4. Libya:  
    • Civil War has ended the life of Muammar Gaddafi and 20-30,000 soldiers and citizens. 
  5. Congo:
    • The deadliest war in modern African history was recently 'ended' and directly involved eight African nations, as well as about 25 armed groups. After beginning in 2003, by 2008, the war and its aftermath had killed 5.4 million people, mostly from disease and starvation.  This war was engineered and ran by multiple African kings.
  6. Palestine:  
    • Terrorist group Hezbollah has been targeting Israel ever since its existence in 1948.  Hezbollah, which started with only a small militia, has grown to an organization with seats in the Lebanese government.  This terrorist group has been democratically elected! Their sole purpose is to destroy Israel.
  7. Iran:
    • Protesters were shot and killed in in 2009 in protesting the tyranny of the Iranian government over their lives.  The country is an Islamic republic ruled by the Ayatollahs and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has professed that he will 'wipe Israel off the map' once he has atomic weapons.  He is building them as we speak.
  8. Rwanda:  
  9. Nigeria
    • A war between Muslim and Christian factions have split the country in two.  Another suicide bomb killing 'just' 10.  Thousands, perhaps 10+ thousand have died just in the past few months in the name of violence.  
  10. Mexican Drug War:  The war the never ends and has left thousands dead

America has been the defender of liberty since it's founding out of tyranny in 1776.  George Washington led the initial revolution, but upon stepping down as president in his farewell address he stressed the need to stay out of foreign wars in Europe.  The founders understood what war was all about, why? Because they experienced it first hand.  They saw the evil in this world and understood that in order to stay independent and free, we could not afford to lose millions of our young men and women on the battlefield.  Some could argue, we have become a great country in no small part because we have stayed out of wars longer than other rival economic super powers.

We've seen carnage in WWI, WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Holocaust, Russian Stalin Communism, Pol-Pot's slaying of millions in the Khmer Rouge, and so many other bloody events.  Some would say that this is the history of mankind, a long period of war interrupted by brief periods of peace.

Evil exists.  Yes, the land of the free and the brave has done much to take out that evil and in effect saving the world not once, but twice from tyranny.  But, we fought in WWI and II not because we wanted to grab land or gain power, but rather to free citizens from the shackles of tyranny and by doing so protect our lands from those chains ever coming upon us.

We are fighting for freedom right now in the longest lasting war in America's history, Afghanistan, surpassing even Vietnam's long length.  We have troops in over 100 countries around the world.  We could be at any moment engaged in yet another conflict in Iran.

Fighting for freedom is a noble cause, and when wrapping it in a nice 27 minute video full of passionate appeals from the children, it appears even nobler.  But to fight a war comes at a cost, a cost that can not be so easily explained in 27 minute sound bites.

Why is it that the same anti-war and anti-bush celebrities are now joining in on this call to end this rebel's power and now advocating assassination?  and why Kony of all people?  Where is the Ugandan government in all this, don't they have an interest in ending this evil in their own country?


 


Should we always be eliminating evil in the world with war? Why is it that America is seemingly all alone when we go to war? Why are we the last ones to leave? Why is our defense budget greater than the rest of the world combined? Too many questions to explain to the children.  Rather, should we kill a bad guy? Ah, that's better. I can understand that.

Perhaps we should have a campaign with little kids waving signs saying: "Communism has claimed over 100 Million lives over the last generation, Kill the Chinese Dictator"  or "Military draft for the restoration of freedom all over the world!"

But then, that war may be too expensive, or difficult to do, or ruffle too many feathers--that's right, we just want to live in peace.  We can't do anything militarily with China, that might cause a real war where millions would die.  Oh.

We are blinded in America by our greed, our pride, our arrogance.  We think that we can take evil out of the world while it is still lodged in our own heart. Abortion anyone? How many millions around the world, even now with China's one-child policy have been silenced this way?   When God is forgotten, evil manifests itself.  We have moved away from Him in America.  Evil will only increase without his hand on our society.  War is not the answer, God is.  Yes, we need to protect the innocent and stand for freedom around the globe, but we need to consider the costs and consider the motives for these actions.

Perhaps we should get our house in order.  Perhaps we should get the log out of our own eye first.



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