I don’t know why the US has any business sending soldiers to Uganda to go after the terrorist Lord’s Resistance Army. There are evil men doing terrible things all over the world. Are we obliged to send combat troops to get them all? This is a bad business. Daniel Larison says that the usual non-interventionist concerns over intervening in the affairs of other states don’t really apply here, but that this is still not something the US should be involving itself in.
Rush Limbaugh knows exactly why the Commander in Chief is doing this, though. He told his listeners that, in the words of the headline on his website:
Obama Invades Uganda, Targets Christians
From the transcript:
Now, up until today, most Americans have never heard of the combat Lord’s Resistance Army. And here we are at war with them. Have you ever heard of Lord’s Resistance Army, Dawn? How about you, Brian? Snerdley, have you? You never heard of Lord’s Resistance Army? Well, proves my contention, most Americans have never heard of it, and here we are at war with them. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. It means God. I was only kidding. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. That’s what the lingo means, “to help regional forces remove from the battlefield,” meaning capture or kill.
So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and — (interruption) no, I’m not kidding.
Got that? Our Muslim president is sending American troops to kill Christians. Just so you know.
Whatever else he is, Rush Limbaugh is not an idiot. He knows exactly what he’s doing. What is the Lord’s Resistance Army? According to GlobalSecurity.org:
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, operated in the north from bases in southern Sudan. The LRA committed numerous abuses and atrocities, including the abduction, rape, maiming, and killing of civilians, including children. In addition to destabilizing northern Uganda from bases in Sudan, the LRA congregated in the Bunia area in eastern Congo. They linked up with the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR) and other rebel groups that were battling with forces from the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD).
The LRA continued to kill, torture, maim, rape, and abduct large numbers of civilians, virtually enslaving numerous children. Although its levels of activity diminished somewhat compared with 1997, the area that the LRA targeted grew. The LRA sought to overthrow the Ugandan Government and inflicted brutal violence on the population in northern Uganda. LRA forces also targeted local government officials and employees. The LRA also targeted international humanitarian convoys and local NGO workers.
The LRA abducted large numbers of civilians for training as guerrillas. Most victims were children and young adults. The LRA abducted young girls as sex and labor slaves. Other children, mainly girls, were reported to have been sold, traded, or given as gifts by the LRA to arms dealers in Sudan. While some later escaped or were rescued, the whereabouts of many children remain unknown.
In particular, the LRA abducted numerous children and, at clandestine bases, terrorized them into virtual slavery as guards, concubines, and soldiers. In addition to being beaten, raped, and forced to march until exhausted, abducted children were forced to participate in the killing of other children who had attempted to escape. Amnesty International reported that without child abductions, the LRA would have few combatants. More than 6,000 children were abducted during 1998, although many of those abducted later escaped or were released. Most human rights NGOs placed the number of abducted children held captive by the LRA at around 3,000, although estimates varied substantially.
This is who Limbaugh is defending as heroic Christian freedom fighters being set upon by President Obama. What Limbaugh is doing here — defending terrorists and child rapists because it helps him make a political argument that Obama hates Christians — is spectacularly contemptible. It is, frankly, evil. Can’t conservatives see that? Below the jump, a video testimony of a woman who was kidnapped as a child by the LRA, forced into sex slavery, and badly mutilated. She has some words for El Rushbo: