The US in not giving without a fight. Their money is on the Chinese oligarch and the Chinese middle-class. Worked a treat in the old Soviet Union and now that bedraggled and moth-eaten Russian teddy-bear has about half the population of the US and its military has such a complex that it is a laughing stock. http://www.squidoo.com/best-dishwashers-for-2012

I'll take that bet. Definite CIA Astroturf going on here.

I've seen the film. It's not Academy Award material. It does have that peculiarly American mawkishness and the film maker makes injects himself into the narrative far too much, a la Michael Moore. But, it is achieving what it set out to achieve and that is to raise awareness and possibly motivate people to pressure their leaders to take action. It's a lot better than the response of lefty intellectuals to the crisis, which is do absolutely nothing, then criticize when someone tries something, anything, to bring this horror to an end. A little awareness and action from the international community in the 1990s could have saved thousands of lives in Rwanda and Bosnia. Lefty intellectual do-nothings complained a lot about Western intervention, whilst people died needlessly. But, of course, human lives don't matter to them. What really matters is naysaying and their beloved ideological purity. I'm sure the kidnapped children and their families are relieved that Western intellectuals care so much about their own lefty bona fides.

America realise that time is running out before China snaps up all the available Coltan, Cu etc.

very bad journalism

Watched the video. bought a cool t-shirt. wrote to my MP "Pwease stop bad man Kony", had a burger, had a shit, put on the xbox. Job done. What's next.

I'm sorry but I find your cynicism a bit "old school". I don't trust US foreign policy as much as any other NS reader, but I trust them more than the Chinese though.
This movement is really about the power of social media capturing the energy of the world's youth and trying to harness it for global good. Of course, its the innocence of youth being manipulated, but kids won't do anything about this if they don't want to. This movement is using guerilla marketing because the mainstream media has "tuned-out" of this story. Mass media can't get new pictures and evidence of this ghastly crime.
There have been so many bloody conflicts to cover since 9/11 that the average viewer has been metaphorically turned-off by stories like these. Yet we have the "Facebook generation" looking for their news from new media, and so this story reappears. You could accuse the US being savvy enough to exploit new media.
But lets look at the film-makers objective: is it to capture this guy Kony and his cohorts? Or is to make a name for himself as a visionary of exploiting social media? It's probably both, but his main aim has to be stopping this crime, as the longer this goes-on the bigger failure Jason Russell will become.

The US in not giving without a fight. Their money is on the Chinese oligarch and the Chinese middle-class. Worked a treat in the old Soviet Union and now that bedraggled and moth-eaten Russian teddy-bear has about half the population of the US and its military has such a complex that it is a laughing stock.
Talk about giving whisky to the Indians.

tl;dr

Things like this have been going on for years, and no one did anything about it then, but I feel it's the trend at the moment, kinda like Keybaord Cat. Call me heartless, I don't care. If the person behind the video really wants to help children and bring awareness, do something about the kids here in the US first. Children as young as 18 months are forced into prostitution, beaten, tortured, and neglected. Why do we feel the need to get involved now? The US needs to fix it's own problems first before fixing everyone else's.

As much as I don't trust US foreign policy Tom Rollins, I don't agree with your views on how much good this campaign could do. Its not just about sending money, it’s about spreading the word - a free action. It’s also about erasing ignorance. We are now in the age of information where everything is a click away; yet we are completely in the dark when there is nothing to gain but everything to lose. Campaigns like these are breeding a new generation (hopefully one your not a part of), with a society that says I choose to do nothing rather than I knew nothing.
As well as this I’d like to know about your views on justice and exactly why you think it has a time limit. Does an unpunished act mean any less because it isn't frequently repeated - because I’m sure his victims would tell you differently?
Evil only prevails when good men do nothing remember that next time you choose to incite ignorance with a one sided argument.

The former chair of Invisible Children currently represents the right-wing humanitarian outfit, the International Rescue Committee
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dave-karlman/0/352/298

For critical informatio on the International Rescue Committee, see
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/articles/display/International_Rescue_Com...

Plus for a related critique of Greg Mortenson's very popular "humanitarian" group, see http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/08/10/three-cups-of-tea-for-imperialism/

One thing I learned in Berkeley: The government (or anyone else for that matter) cannot do anything that someone (lefty, righty, lawyer, village idiot) cannot find a reasonable sounding alternative motive.

I think this an interesting take on Kony 2012. I totally agree about the dangers of military intervention, and I'm sure the region's national resources played a part in the US's desire to lend a hand.

I think Invisible Children's motives are probably sound myself, but the film itself made me feel queasy. My own take on it focused more on the dangers of intervention, I've linked to it below:

KONY 2012: Yes, social media can raise awareness, but does "clicktivism" do more than harm than good?

http://thegoldenlatrine.blogspot.com/2012/03/kony-2012-yes-social-media-...

Wish the Leveson Inquiry would look into bullshit journalism like this.

This is not bad journalism. You idiots are just fucking sheep. LRA hasn't been seen in Uganda in 5 years. He is known to be operating in Sudan and the congo. But we send troops to uganda? You guys sure it has nothing to do with that new oil deposit found in uganda last year... right before the gov't sign the stop kony order..

Brian - Why not send the CEOs of oil companies instead of marines then?

Sickening that someone would care more about wether or not the US has an ulterior motive, than the thousands of children forced to mutilate and kill and exist as slaves...I don't care if there's a motive! Someone has to protect the children!

It's like you didn't read the article.

'oh but what about the dying children!'

That's the point, Kony hasn't been in Uganda since 2006. The issue isn't kids. It's oil and AFRICOM.

Great article, maybe the western sheep could one day show as much passion in bringing their own psychotic leaders to justice. Using George Bush as a targeted policy maker should make the deception of this propaganda as clear as possible

I find it interesting how the opposition to the issue always say this is not a new issue. They seem to put aside the facts of the situation by saying that it isn't relevant. The fact is that thousands of children are kidnapped to be child soldiers and force to cause acts of great violence against the populace. What the opposition is say is that we should always keep to the status quo. But when the status quo has failed to bring justice and liberty to a population who live under the belief that the justice and liberty must be at the forefront of as unalienable rights, then the time has come to change the status quo, whether it be an immediate response (as is to be preferred), or a response to an ignored problem. Let us always stand to say that we as a generation stood by the belief of liberty and justice for all.

Tom Rollins is desperate to make himself famous. His twitter followers is a little less than 400. The way he writes explains why.

J.F Kennedy, once said: "Things do not just happen. Things are made to happen". Therefore one wouldn't be wrong to imagine that some of these developments might not be happening by accident, but a well-planned event.
“A MAN ALWAYS HAS TWO REASONS FOR DOING ANYTHING- THE ‘GOOD REASON’ AND THE 'REAL REASON'”, (J.P. Morgan). This is why any such US proposed military intervention must be critically examined especially when it may lead to the establishment of a US military base (AFRICOM) in the country and the possible use of depleted Uranium which equally has devastating consequences. Our experience in Iraq is still fresh in our memories. As we look forward to “get rid of” these terrorists, let us always be guided by the Iraqi experience. The US went to Iraq (and Afghanistan) with the promise to get rid of Al-Qaeda. Today, although Bin Laden “is dead” together with Al-Zawahiri and about 1.2million Iraqis, Al-CIAda is still hanging around in the Middle East and Libya with more sophisticated weapons. Yet, the military contractors made billions of money in these wars. Perhaps the bitter part of this reality is that Al-Qaeda today has grown beyond mere terrorist attacks to a much bigger role of overthrowing governments labelled as evil. Wake UP!! They want to turn Africa into a war zone in order to plunder our resources.

So Kony hasn't been active in Uganda for years now? So America probaby has an ulterior motive? Oh that's OK then. Let's have a cup of tea and forget all about it. Forget about all the children he's abducted in the past, they CLEARLY don't matter! It doesn't matter that these children were abducted, raped, forced to kill. Never mind, eh?

These are still crimes and Kony and the others responsible still need to be held accountable. They are indicted as war criminals. I couldn't give a toss who gets involved, be it US forces or the Ugandan government, so long as these evil people are all arrested, convicted and punished. If Uganda doesn't have the resources (or the guts?) to stop this from happening to it's children then someone else will have to step in.

There are plenty of conspiracy theories and people are entitled to their opinion but the facts remain the same:- Children are/have been abducted, raped, forced to kill and murdered. Regardless of America's intentions, this is something that needs to be stopped.

"immediate permanent decapitation" that is (got killed by having their head blown/chopped off)

just sayin'

@ Why Now, since there is not one little bit of evidence for your claims, it "explains" nothing except that you have a paranoid worldview.