Obama Sent Troops To Eliminate Kony

Invisible Children's new campaign comes five months after President Barack Obama sent 100 U.S. forces to help regional governments eliminate Kony and his lieutenants. American troops are now stationed in Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Congo, and South Sudan, countries where Kony's men operate. Ugandan officials say that, with the help of U.S. troops, the hunt for LRA leaders has intensified in recent months. Asked what the chances were of eliminating the LRA, Rear Adm. Brian L. Losey, the top U.S. special operations commander for Africa, told journalists last month: "I don't see failure." Kony is now thought to be hiding in the Central African Republic, where he fled before an aerial assault on his forested base in Congo in 2008. Ugandan officials say the LRA with some 200 core fighters at most is weakened and is merely trying to survive. Ogenga Latigo, a politician from northern Uganda who previously led the opposition in Uganda's Parliament, said Invisible Children's perspective was too narrow to be allowed to define the popular understanding of an insurgency that displaced millions and in which thousands were killed or abducted. "Theirs is a narrow perspective," he said of Invisible Children's work. "They just want the war to end so that children can go back home. That's all." Latigo said that the Ugandan government, by failing to deploy enough soldiers to prevent the LRA from abducting children over the years, had been partly responsible for the rebel group's success as a recruiter of children. "Our position was clear. We told the government, 'There are not enough soldiers,'" he said. Maria Burnett, a researcher on Uganda for Human Rights Watch, said the video has helped draw attention to an issue the rights group has long been working on. "We hope it will be helpful," she said. "What it leads to remains to be seen, but the goal to bring pressure on key leaders, to protect civilians and to apprehend LRA leadership is important, absolutely."