Another new front for USA, as the World Police Force

[kytwell 179]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama is sending about 100 U.S. troops to Africa to help hunt down the leaders of the notoriously violent Lord's Resistance Army in and around Uganda.

"I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield," Obama said in letter sent Friday to House Speaker John Boehner and Daniel Inouye, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Kony is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army.

U.S. military personnel advising regional forces working to target Kony and other senior leaders will not engage Kony's forces "unless necessary for self-defense," Obama said.

"I believe that deploying these U.S. armed forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa."

Obama noted that the group "has murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women and children in central Africa" and "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."

According to the State Department, "since 2008 alone, the LRA has killed more than 2,400 people and abducted more than 3,400. The United Nations estimates that over 380,000 people are displaced across the region because of LRA activity."

Obama said the United States since 2008 has backed regional military efforts to go after the Lord's Resistance Army. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that since that time the United States has provided more than $40 million in support.

Efforts to combat the LRA, however, have been unsuccessful.

In his letter, Obama cited the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. In that measure, Congress "expressed support for increased, comprehensive U.S. efforts to help mitigate and eliminate the threat posed by the LRA to civilians and regional stability," he said.

"I have directed this deployment, which is in the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive. I am making this report as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution," he said. "I appreciate the support of the Congress in this action."

Obama said the initial team of U.S. military personnel "with appropriate combat equipment" deployed to Uganda on Wednesday. Other forces deploying include "a second combat-equipped team and associated headquarters, communications and logistics personnel."

"Our forces will provide information, advice and assistance to select partner nation forces," he said. "Subject to the approval of each respective host nation, elements of these U.S. forces will deploy into Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The support provided by U.S. forces will enhance regional efforts against the LRA. "

The U.S. troops backing the operation "are primarily comprised of Special Operations Forces," according to the Pentagon.

It said the United States has been helping Uganda and the other regional countries in their fight against the LRA since 2008. The U.S. has provided logistical support, non-lethal equipment, training and intelligence assistance, as well as $33 million to Uganda's People Defense Forces effort to counter the group.

The Pentagon cited multiple examples of its assistance, such as sending equipment to Central African armed forces and training a Democratic Republic of Congo light infantry battalion deployed in that country's northeast.

It noted that U.S. Africa Command is "exploring ways to support the military of South Sudan."

In early October 2010, the U.S. military had more than 1,700 troops deployed in sub-Saharan Africa, the Pentagon said. The majority of them -- around 1,380 - were deployed in Djibouti. But U.S. troops had at least a small presence in 33 different nations in sub-Saharan Africa. At this time last year they had nine troops in Uganda.

One conservative member of Congress, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, weighed in to support the effort.

"I applaud our nation's military for making this a priority and taking the steps outlined in our legislation that will eventually protect the children and people from Joseph Kony's reign of terror," Inhofe said.

"I have witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by the LRA, and this will help end Kony's heinous acts that have created a human rights crisis in Africa. We must work to bring justice to the children and victims in Uganda devastated by Kony and the LRA. I have been fervently involved in trying to prevent further abductions and murders of Ugandan children, and today's action offers hope that the end of the LRA is in sight."

Kony claims he is a prophet sent from God to replace the Ugandan government with a democracy based on the Ten Commandments.

The group has been "notorious for kidnapping children and forcing them to become rebel fighters or concubines," according to the website GlobalSecurity.org.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Kony and four other group leaders for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Campo said that the "LRA is an involuntary army and the majority of the fighters are formerly abducted children. "

Obama's plan in dealing with the LRA calls for increasing "protection of civilians," apprehending or removing Kony and senior LRA commanders from the battlefield, promoting the "defection, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of remaining LRA fighters" and increasing "humanitarian access."

Representatives of 34 groups in the LRA-affected areas of northern Congo, Central African Republic, and Southern Sudan wrote Obama in December, applauding his commitment to tackle the problem and urging him to deal with the group, according to Human Rights Watch.

http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/Obama_Sends_100_Military_Advisors_to_Uganda_131898448.html

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Congo has oil.

[Guinness 3]

WAR MONGER!!!!!!!

[kytwell 179]

After doing some more searching I found this interesting tidbit:

A DETERMINED push by Western wildcatters and big oil companies from fast-growing Asian economies such as those of China and Malaysia may change the fortunes of several countries in remoter and trickier bits of Africa once largely ignored by foreign investors. One of the most spectacular recent finds has been in Uganda. The reserves of the Albertine rift, which takes in the Ugandan and Congolese shores of Lake Albert (see map), are said to need $10 billion for development. All being well, Uganda will soon become a mid-sized producer, alongside countries such as Mexico. Foreign investment in Uganda may nearly double this year to $3 billion. The country expects to earn $2 billion a year from oil by 2015.

The windfall may well change the country’s politics. But oil can be a curse. It is far from certain that all of the country’s 30m people will benefit. Oil executives and loyalists of Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, say the bonanza offers a chance to overhaul the country’s rickety infrastructure and to train a professional workforce. A deal in the offing will link Tullow, an Irish company much involved in the oil discovery, with Total, a French giant, and the cash-rich China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC).

However oil-rich Uganda becomes, Mr Museveni, who came to power in 1986, will still have headaches. He has spent much of his time in office papering over tribal and other divisions. A rebel militia, the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has terrorised northern Uganda for more than two decades, has finally been driven into Congo, where it continues to perpetrate massacres. But other disputes fester. Oil riches could exacerbate rather than resolve them.

»A bonanza beckons

The Buganda kingdom, the largest of the country’s four big ones, helped vote Mr Museveni, an Ankole, into office. Now the Baganda are less keen on him. They believe that more power should be devolved to their traditional rulers. And they want a lot more money—oil money—spent on their unemployed young men. They can make things awkward for Mr Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement, especially around Kampala, the capital. Another kingdom, Bunyoro, is demanding a big cut of the oil revenues; most of the oil wells are being drilled on its land.

As well as grumbling monarchies, Mr Museveni must satisfy his party’s own grandees. Sinecures help, starting with his own family. Mr Museveni has appointed a son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to command an army unit with specific responsibility for guarding the oil wells. It may be the first step in a handover from father to son. A bigger worry is the apparent lack of oversight on Mr Museveni and his government that oil may bring. Foreign aid-giving governments already tend to look the other way when Uganda’s democracy falters, its environment is fouled up, or aid money is stolen. Yet foreign leaders have already begun to fawn. South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, was the latest to visit Kampala with oil deals presumably in mind.

But China is likely to be the biggest winner. Mr Museveni seems dazzled by Chinese promises to help build an oil refinery and to help turn oil into Ugandan-produced plastics and fertiliser. That may be bad news for Uganda’s opposition, which wants to oust Mr Museveni in next year’s election. And several jealous Western governments and companies want to stall China’s advance into the Congo basin, with its vast reserves of minerals and timber.

http://www.economist.com/node/15825780

[Nina~ 431]

Old news

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/334246-obama-opens-up-another-military-action-in-africa/

[kytwell 179]

He also got us into Libya, while we're still in Afghanistan and Iraq. We've got Mexico right next door, where 1000's are being murdered and we're going to go to Africa now? While I don't want us going anywhere, if we're going to go anywhere, I'd rather us clean up our own continent first.

As House of Pain said:

The time has come for everyone to clean up their own backyard, before they go knockin' on their neighbors door

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Obama is a War Mongering Democrat who obviously has little concern for American lives.

[Guinness 3]

Obama is a War Mongering Democrat who obviously has little concern for American lives.

Edited October 18, 2011 by Guinness

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Well said Guinness.

[slim 1,514]

$40 million in aid.

And we need to stop tax cuts?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Old news

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/334246-obama-opens-up-another-military-action-in-africa/

Obama is in with Haliburton and Cheney just like Bush was. More war for oil. Just great.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Obama is a War Mongering Democrat who obviously has little concern for American lives.

If any Americans in the area disagree with him he we hit them with remote control missiles. I thought he was going to end wars, seems like he has expanded the existing ones and started two more and now they are trying to make trouble with Iran.

[luckytxn 2,263]

When he keeps making these decisions to send more military in new places I wonder if he even glances at his Nobel Peace Prize he won for just his potential.