President Obama is sending about 100 special forces troops to central Africa to help target the leadership of the Lord's Resistance Army, a notorious militia that has been raping and pillaging in the remote jungles of northern Uganda and neighboring countries for more than two decades.Not only are we going into a yet another counter-insurgency, but we are going on a Mohamed Farrah Aidid style bug hunt.
The first team of armed advisors arrived in Uganda on Wednesday. Over the next month, the remaining U.S. troops, most of them Army Green Berets, will be sent to Uganda and surrounding countries, including South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Congo.
In a letter notifying Congress on Friday, Obama said the goal of the U.S. mission was to assist regional African forces in removing "from the battlefield" the militia's leader, self-declared prophet Joseph Kony. But the U.S. troops will not fight unless fired upon, the letter said.
A militia known for forcing abducted children to fight and for mutilating its victims, the Lord's Resistance Army has long been condemned by the U.S. and human rights organizations for atrocities against civilians.
When Obama said that he was opposed to "Stupid Wars" in 2003, what he neglected to say was that he doesn't believe that any wars are "stupid".
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