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Let's review a bit of history...
It's 1990, Kuwait was occupied by the Iraqis, there is an increasing drumbeat for war and a young girl named Nayirah who says she is a nurse and comes before Congressional Human Rights Caucus and tells the horrible tale of how Iraqi soldiers entered their her hospital stealing incubators and leaving babies to die on the floor.
What wasn't told to the Commission or the public at the time was that the girl who was giving this testimony was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador, and was concocted by a PR firm to justify American intervention. Numerous Senators and the President used the story to illustrate the need for action. Considering the vote for war was passed by only five votes, this lie may have been what started Operation Desert Storm.
Now some twenty years later, we have Kony 2012; a slickly produced film about the atrocities happening in Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army and it's leader Joseph Kony. Of course, the fact that Kony is not that active in Uganda anymore is pretty much glossed over in the movie.
This current situation reminds me heavily of the Nayirah testimony. Somebody is trying to sell war Uganda. Why? I'm sure the oil has something to do with it, but considering the people that are funding Invisible Children It's real easy to see this as some kind of religious crusade, and the founder of Invisible Children even suggests that.
At best this is a lot of misguided fundamentalist colonialism, at worst it's an intentional public manipulation to justify more blood for oil. Either way, I just find the whole situation sickening.
It's 1990, Kuwait was occupied by the Iraqis, there is an increasing drumbeat for war and a young girl named Nayirah who says she is a nurse and comes before Congressional Human Rights Caucus and tells the horrible tale of how Iraqi soldiers entered their her hospital stealing incubators and leaving babies to die on the floor.
What wasn't told to the Commission or the public at the time was that the girl who was giving this testimony was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador, and was concocted by a PR firm to justify American intervention. Numerous Senators and the President used the story to illustrate the need for action. Considering the vote for war was passed by only five votes, this lie may have been what started Operation Desert Storm.
Now some twenty years later, we have Kony 2012; a slickly produced film about the atrocities happening in Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army and it's leader Joseph Kony. Of course, the fact that Kony is not that active in Uganda anymore is pretty much glossed over in the movie.
This current situation reminds me heavily of the Nayirah testimony. Somebody is trying to sell war Uganda. Why? I'm sure the oil has something to do with it, but considering the people that are funding Invisible Children It's real easy to see this as some kind of religious crusade, and the founder of Invisible Children even suggests that.
At best this is a lot of misguided fundamentalist colonialism, at worst it's an intentional public manipulation to justify more blood for oil. Either way, I just find the whole situation sickening.
