President Obama deploys "armed advisers" to Uganda.

[cleanhippie]

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.

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/world/africa/barack-obama-sending-100-armed-advisers-to-africa-to-help-fight-lords-resistance-army.html?_r=1

-----------------------------------------------


I seem to recall a conflict a few decades ago where we sent "advisers". How did that go again?

[Autumn]

1. well shit

the last one didn't go too well.

[razorman]

2. Yes. This does seem familiar, doesn't it? What exactly is our national interest in Uganda?

Or, for that matter, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Iraq, or Afghanistan? Or Bosnia? Acting as world cops by trying to help the downtrodden is not good enough. Unless we have an overriding national interest in a particular place, such as an actual threat from them, we should stay the hell out.

[TBF]

15. Here ya go -

follow the OIL >>>>>>



http://www.afrol.com/articles/21834

[razorman]

28. I think I know what you mean. We always hear that we are sending troops here or there

in a "war for oil". But, how come we don't get the cheap oil afterward? It never seems to happen. We think we are justified in getting ourselves involved in an "Arab Spring", but only wind up helping advance the Islamic Jihadists agenda. Egypt and Libya are not going be more democratic when the dust settles.

[TBF]

30. The whole "democracy" and "freedom" cries are just a smokescreen -

it's always the resources. Always.

[razorman]

35. It's human nature, and will not change. Wars have always been fought because someone has what

someone else wants.

[TBF]

37. Reactionary crap. It is capitalist nature - and if we had an economic

system in which we rewarded something other than profits over people we would see different human behavior.

[polly7]

18. U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa

"With the U.S.-NATO war against Libya entering a new phase, the states involved in waging military aggression and regime change on this oil-producing North African country repeatedly congratulated themselves for overthrowing a sovereign government that was both a member of the United Nations and the African Union. The war to topple the Moammar Gadhafi government in Libya represented the first military mission of the U.S. Africa Command or AFRICOM, which was established in 2008 to specifically advance the strategic interests of both Washington and Wall Street."

NATO’s Libya war opens door to AFRICOM

http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2011/09/africom-to-f...


Africa Command: U.S. Strategic Interests and the Role of the U.S. Military in Africa
Lauren Ploch
Analyst in African Affairs
July 22, 2011

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL34003.pdf

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Will they be looking for the Ho-Chi-Minh Trail? Or, later, the Light at the End of the Tunnel?

[slackmaster]

7. Your forgot "Peace with honor"

[Mz Pip]

4. Maybe we don't have

any national interests. Maybe, for once, we are doing the right thing. If we have the power to stop mass murder perhaps we have the moral obligation to do so. That's one of the responsibilities for being a leader in the free world.

We've used our power badly before; to that I will agree. But I think we have it right on this one.

[Exilednight]

6. Not even close. This is a government that wants to not only outlaw homosexuality, it wants to

punish gays and lesbians by putting them to death.

[Mz Pip]

10. Sounds like a lot of bad players

there. Still not a reaswon to stand by and let massacres happen if we can prevent them.

And maybe down the road we can change help change some of the government's policies as well.

[Exilednight]

13. It's members of our govenment that are pushing such policies within Uganda. Besides, if we really

wanted to massacres, then there are better places to start.

[Mz Pip]

14. Can you please provide

a link that shows where our government is pushing the policies of killing gays and Lesbians? I know there are a couple of rw hacks who seem to approve of such things but I doubt that this is something our government is pushing.

[Exilednight]

20. Here's a good place to start.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130070569

[cleanhippie]

22. And thats horrible, but is THAT the criteria for sending our troops to a country?

:shrug:

[Exilednight]

25. I'm not sure as to what our reasons are anymore. n/t

[cleanhippie]

29. And that is why I think we should STOP sending troops anywhere.

Until we define just what is and what is not acceptable, the troops need to stay home.

[Harmony Blue]

24. This is why the U.S. needs to stay out of this

nothing good will come of this.

[GoCubsGo]

8. And, may I add...

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SN01067:@@@P#

Please note the main sponsor of this bill, as well as the co-sponsors. It passed unanimously in both the House and Senate.

[cleanhippie]

9. I really hope you are right.

On the surface, it SEEMS like a righteous cause, but is it really? The first question I always ask when troops go anywhere is "who will profit from this?"

So what does Uganda have to offer? What natural resources have yet to be exploited?

:shrug:

[TBF]

17. See my post #15 - it's the oil

nt

[cleanhippie]

23. Oil. Its always the oil, isn't it.

There is still just TOO MUCH MONEY to be made from it.

[TBF]

31. Yes, as long as profit is the motive they'll be chasing it -

if it wasn't oil it would be some other resource they could make money on. It's how capitalism thrives.

[TBF]

16. lolol .... nt

[slackmaster]

5. How many new wars did we get into this week?

:crazy:

[ixion]

11. Vietnam and Korea started that way, too...

just sayin'...

[cleanhippie]

12. That is what I was alluding to in the OP.

[ixion]

19. Yeah, I figured you were

just putting a finer point on it. ;)

[BlueIris]

21. Desperate.

Pointless, too.

[blindpig]

26. His marching orders come from Henry M Stanley.

it is no doubt a 'civilizing' mission.

[undeterred]

27. Sounds like PEACEKEEPING to me.

:sarcasm:

[TBF]

32. Yup, "peacekeeping" for Shell, Exxon, BP, etc...

June 2011 - Uganda: Oil Companies Queue up for Licences
http://allafrica.com/stories/201106211033.html

From 2009 - Ugandan Oil Fields are the best-kept secret in the world
http://digitaljournal.com/article/269940#ixzz1as106piv

Not a secret anymore ...

[chill_wind]

38. Shhh!!

Can't talk like that. It's an affront to common sensibilities.

:sarcasm:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=323690&mesg_id=323715

[bluestate10]

33. Based upon the information that you presented, the deployment is right.

I hope that Obama sent in armed Drones also, the kill the bastard Kony as soon as his face surfaced in the light. There is only one way to deal with such an evil person. Obama has it right.

[cleanhippie]

34. Then you also support doing the same an many oater countries with such "evil" people?

Is that the criteria for an armed response now?

[Aerows]

36. OIL

Once again, it's about oil.