Forums / Discussion / General

KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.
Pledge your support at http://bit.ly/konydonate and continue to share this story.

GOAL: 500,000 shares

Let's all do something this year.

Jesus, this is all over the place. I'd say it's already surpassed 500,000.

I donate to kids with Cancer, does that count?

You'd be surprised how little Invisible Children actually helps the issue. They've really just become a collection of teenagers who think they're awesome for pointing out a problem in Africa.

I wonder how much time and money they spent on that fancy website that doesn't even work.

>http://s3.amazonaws.com/kony2012/kony_new.html

That's not even a website URL, it's a cached page.

All you really need is a rifle, a scope, and a bullet.

This guy knows his shit.

Also, these guys visited back when I was in High-School.

Most of them were Hipsters.

It's not even that hard. Laurent Nkunda, Kony's rival was arrested last year after 20 years on the run.

It wouldn't really take much to find and arrest Kony. It's not like he's Osama bin Laden levels of stealthy.

But what really gets me is invisible Children call themselves "an army of peace" yet are advocating for American military action in the Congo basin.

Kony 2012, Kony 2012 everywhere.

I agree with Brawler and phoenix. While it's an admirable and necessary goal to terminate the LRA and Kony, the way Invisible Children is going about it is wrong. Raising awareness is one thing, but they way they're doing it is…perhaps not the most productive to actually helping those in need. These sorts of campaigns are more to appease what some would term the "guilty conscience" of the First World. I would rather give my money to a group like Médecins sans frontières, where I know the money is pretty much going straight to help people, instead of financing giant guerrilla marketing campaigns.

To be honest it would most likely be someone close to him.

Also Obama sent a few advisers over, that is pretty lacking, and they present that as a success story?

This is exactly what I thought after going to a meeting of theirs on my campus.

I thought that it would be a very good thing to do to help, but I felt that they were going about it in an entirely wrong way.

They aren't providing any direct aid, they're just sort of providing for themselves and giving some secondary aid.

It doesn't take a lot really. A few advisors is not much but you don't need 200k troops like the Americans are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq

I recommend reading up the Mercenary Corporation Executive Outcomes, they're brutal motherfuckers and I hate praising them but they singlehandedly destroyed UNITA rebels in Angola and RUF rebels in Sierra Leone in a few short weeks.

Weren't those the guys who used a 100 men to push back an entire rebel group? And then America got pissed because they thought it was unethical to use a private military company?

burning_phoenix suggested:

Executive Outcomes

I know about these PMCs, but I'm not so sure that's the best solution in this case. They might eradicate the LRA, but they, uh, aren't known for their humanitarianism, as you pointed out. So they may not end up helping the region much.

One of the main problems in the region, perhaps not so much with the LRA, but with Nkunda's rebels in the DR Congo, and the Congolese army for that matter, is the use of rape as a weapon, both against females and males. PMCs are probably just as likely to use rape as anyone else in the area, which would only worsen things. And even if they don't, their tactics are, as you said, brutal.

What I meant was in reference to Sweatie Killer's remark that a few advisors aren't that much to celebrate about.

The example of EO was that even a small number of highly trained troops is enough to do the job against a bunch crazy guys with guns. Send in Seal Team Six or the Green Berets and this will be over quickly.

The EO mercenaries are pretty combat hardened compared to some advisers,saying they are the same is laughable, I'd assume the mercenaries have the training of American or other first world countries, along with multiple combat experiences that truly make them adamant. Advisers, maybe some of them have Combat experience, but I'm guessing a good portion of them are like regular soldiers in Iraq training mercenaries to fight the battles for them.

These rebels really have no lives to come back to, and they will just live in poverty anyways, why would they ever come back to being a victim? What would killing Kony actually do? The only way I can really see a change is by changing the IRA soldiers, but there is nothing to offer them. What could you really offer them?

Its really a matter of convincing them to surrender peacefully, or just wiping them out, and there is not much to negotiate peacefully with.

KYM's Plan of Action:

1. Employ Blackwater top Take down Kony.
2. Profit.

No room for questions.

Combat Advisors or "Military Transition Teams" are veterans with combat arms background. So these are full fledged soldiers that actually go out into battle with the units they are advising.

The Combat Advisors in Iraq for example, are all members of the 1st Infantry Division of the US Army.

And of course, if you send in SEAL team members or Airborne Rangers, they'll get Kony.

So they aren't the same as basic infantry, that is way better then.

I always learn something from you.

Some people who agree with us that the campaign is stupid and counter-productive:

• Foreign Affairs magazine
• Chris Blattman – Professor of PoliSci and Economics at Yale
• Wronging Rights – by a PoliSci PhD student at Columbia and an International Law instructor at Fordham University
• http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/ – by a PoliSci student at Acadia University

Yup.

Kony's been around for years.
The internet didn't care until we got something to repost.

Anyway, Invisible Children is a terrible charity. It would be much better for the people that are vulnerable to simply donate to UNICEF.

Why don't we just abduct Child soldiers back?

I wonder how Kony gets so famous just now?

And also hipsters.

Spamming a not very useful program to point out a problem that already is being taking care of is pointless. Let's move onto something that isn't being taken care of, like homeless veterans.

Well, they are basic infantry. I know SEALs and Green Berets did military advising during Vietnam but nowadays that's rare.

The ones in Uganda are probably Iraq war veterans of Sergeant or higher rank of the normal US Army. Then again, First Infantry division guys are prestigious, if by past reputation alone.

The words "Invisible Children" make me imagine a Pedobear lolcat macro.

The thoughts of the English schoolchildren, I find it very interesting.

[repeating what I said in the Kony 2012 article]

I just got invited to an event in Auckland City where people are going to parade down Queen Street with "Arrest Kony" banners.

This is in New Zealand: the county that's practically on the other side of the world to Uganda and cannot do a damn thing about it.

The last time New Zealand protested in their own country about external affairs that they have nothing to do with and know nothing about was Occupy Wall Street

This must be getting big.

I'll let you know if the parade actually goes through with it

As for the previous discussion regarding the moral worth of this protest; I agree with the evidence put forward that while awareness is worth being raised, there appears to be little reason to put any trust into the organisations that currently want to fight against Kony.

There is some deliberate misinformation going on and I won't participate in any action until Snopes.com sheds more light on the situation.

20th April eh? Well I now I know to get my shipping done early before they march down Queen Street.

Beat Pauly Illuvatar to it.

20th April eh? Well I now I know to get my shipping done early before they march down Queen Street.

So hows that AppleDash fic coming along?

…

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

So yea, unfortunately I'll have to turn down the invite. I'm not paying $200 bucks worth of petrol to drive to Auckland to attend a rally of questionable intention and effect. But you should totally take some pictures of the event if you can make it there Phoneix. I'm actually quite interested to see what happens.

True, maybe my comments was a bit arrogant, oh well.

Anyways, what do you think of this?
Picture included, because he looks like a bad ass.

"War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over. "-William Tecumseh Sherman