The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)

The first reason that the US did not intervene in Rwanda is the previous Black Hawk Down incident. This unfortunate event took place in 1993 when a group of soldiers attempted to make peace

The Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency is an ongoing guerrilla campaign that started in 1987. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group was led by Joseph Kony. Kony proclaims himself as the “spokesperson” of god. His objective is to overthrow the Ugandan government, establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and Acholi tradition.

The Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice Equality Movement took arms against the Sudanese government, which was later named “The War in Darfur”. Which sparked the anger of the government and sent their military to begin murdering many villages, that were non Arabs. In many accounts reported about 2 million were killed over 2 decades.Scarce resources played a huge role in the mass killings of Sudanese (non arab).

History has been shown to repeat itself, and if we don't learn from it, we are doomed to repeat it. We have watched many genocides happen within the last decade, some of which the U.S. has intervened, and in some cases where they have not. The United States should not intervene in foreign countries for humanitarian reasons because the U.S. may lack investing the amount of troops and resources necessary to make the intervention successful ; that doctrine will be abused unless there is a self-interest at stake.

They also had truces now with other organizations, like the UNFR. There was a organization called the Lord’s Resistance Army and they would attack the country. They kidnapped children and caused more people to flee. They killed many people in Uganda to rebel. Uganda tried to contact them to stop this rebelling, but they did not. Uganda tried to meet up with the leader of the group, but they did not show up. They tried to make peace and come to an agreement to stop, but they did not want to. “The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, again fails to turn up for the signing of a peace agreement”(“Uganda Profile - Timeline”). Uganda is putting a lot of effort into trying to settle things with the LRA, but the LRA does not want to settle any of their disputes. Uganda wants everything to be mostly peaceful again, but they cannot do that without the LRA stopping their unnecessary attacks against Uganda. The LRA and Ugandans end up signing a truce after having several peace talks, causing a ceasefire.

Whether or not Darfur should be assisted due to the genocide occurring there is a highly debated subject, as you must know. However, I believe that the United States should stay out, because we need the resources, the assets we send over could be used against those in need, and despite it being horrible, it is not the worst thing going on in Africa. This issue has not caused everyone to go running to save them in the past, so why the sudden change?

After the first world war the leaders of europe came together to discuss the boundaries of europe. British rule decided to separate ireland into two sides. North Ireland was created when the british government of Ireland Act in 1920 divided Ireland into two areas; the Irish Free State and the Northern Ireland Roman Catholics, who made up around one-third of the population of Northern Ireland, were largely opposed to the separation. The British took over , but only after many revolts and riots against them from the people of ireland. In 1969 the IRA (Irish Republican Army) was formed. They were a Catholic Irish nationalist group that used guerrilla tactics like bombings and assassinations to oppose British rule and oppression in Ireland. Their main goal was to fight the british that took over their home. The IRA would Fight using guerilla and terrorist tactics including bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, punishment beatings, extortion, smuggling, and robberies. But over time the IRA became more of a dangerous militia then patriots defending their home.

The Lord’s Resistance Army, or the LRA, is Africa’s most violent armed group and also the oldest. Joseph Kony formed the LRA in 1986 in northern Uganda, to fight against the Ugandan Government. At the height of the conflict, about two million people were displaced in northern Uganda. Since the LRA never gained public support, they turned to forcible recruitment to build up their army (“The Lord’s Resistance Army”). Kony, and the LRA believe that Uganda should be governed and run based on the 10 Commandments. They rely on the application of terror in order to keep their campaign alive. The war in Uganda being

Who is the Lord’s Resistance Army? The LRA is a rebel Christian cult that has “terrorized” Uganda for nearly thirty years. In 1986, the LRA began as an “evolution of the Holy Spirit Movement.” Led by Alice Lakwena, the Holy Spirit Movement was a rebellion against the oppression of North Uganda by their president, Yoweri Museveni.(invisible children, 2014) Claiming that she was possessed by the spirit of a long-dead Italian soldier, Lakwena was seen unfit to remain the leader of the Holy Spirit Movement. When she was exiled in 1987, Joseph Kony, her supposed cousin, took over the group, renaming it the Lord’s Resistance Army. With hopes of bringing down the Ugandan

The National Liberation Army (ELN) was established July, 4th 1964 by college students and a group of radical, Catholic clergy that were inspired by the revolution that took place in Cuba (Stanford, 2012). Since its inception, the ELN have had an ongoing rivalry with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), due to a constant power struggle between the two groups.

The Lord’s Resistance Army began as The Holy Spirit movement in the 1980’s which was guided by Alice Lakwena. Alice believed that she was lead by the Holy Spirit to overthrow the Ugandan government because of their abuse to the Acholi people. People quickly joined the resistance out of their hatred of the Ugandan government. The movement continued to grow until they lost a battle to the government which eventually lead to the capture of Alice. The movement lacked leadership until Alice’s supposedly cousin Joseph Kony took over.

The UN and the US government are accredited for deploring conflict situations as well as contributing humanitarian aid, and this is what these two organizations did in Rwanda and Darfur. However, the UN did not do anything to punish or prevent the genocides that took place in these two countries. The US government promised to support the peace talk’s agreement in Darfur and hold the perpetrators accountable for their acts. It never kept that promise since nothing has been done. So far, the UN’s Security Council has also failed in its peace keeping mission effeorts, and is instead pressuring Sudan with words only. No solid steps have been made to bring the wrong doers into justice (Shapiro).

The United States national interest should always be extremely individualistic and based solely on what is best for our country. The civil war in Syria is something that is grabbing the attention of nations all across the world. The question is, should the United States step in to the civil war in Syria, and if so how do we go about it? Should the United States join forces with unlikely allies in order to defeat Isis? The national interest is very difficult to define and everyone has a different definition to it. Professor Ferraro exclaims that “Some states may have an interest in securing more resources or land; other states may wish to expand their own political or economic systems into other areas; some states may merely wish to be left alone,” (Class Lecture, September 8, 2016). I believe that the United States should wish to be left alone, and only intervene in issues when they could affect America directly. The United States does have a national interest in the civil war in Syria in terms of security for our citizens; we should not allow Syrian refugees into our country at all until we completely destroy ISIS by teaming up with unlikely forces such as Russia and Assad. However, the United States shouldn’t be involved in the humanitarian aspect of the civil war in Syria due to the horrific national debt and the social issues we already have present in our country today.

The U.S. must intervene in South Sudan, as it is an enduring interest within our National Security Strategy to maintain “An international order advanced by U.S. leadership that promotes peace, security, and opportunity.” General Rodriguez, commander of AFRICOM, should employ both diplomatic and economic instruments of power. By doing so, the U.S. risks a potentially long-term engagement in East Africa.

In addition, political aspects have played a role in the roots of the Darfur conflict. The leader, General Omar Hassan Ahmad al- Bashir (who came to power in 1989), is a major source of the problem. Al-