Kony dodges US SpecOps troops
The Washington Post reports that the US Special Forces is having trouble locating that Lord’s resistance Army and Joseph Kony in the Central African Republic;
Kony, a Ugandan guerrilla who began his uprising in the 1980s, long ago ordered his followers to stop using radios and cellphones to avoid leaving an electronic trail. Nowadays, officials said, his 200 or so fighters rely on foot messengers and preordained rendezvous points to communicate.
Kony’s methods have proven effective against the U.S. military’s satellites, sensors and other forms of surveillance. Commanders warn that it could take years to find him.
It’s obvious to me what the problem is, and therefore, the solution is just as obvious. You guys aren’t “Like”ing that video enough. If more people would “Like” the video, Kony would see the futility of his escape, and surrender immediately. Um, /sarcasm.
Category: Military issues
According to the WAPO, “U.S. military officials said they think Kony is hiding in the Central African Republic, in the vicinity of the Obo and Djema bases.”
Thanks heaps, WAPO. If true, I’d guess he won’t be there much longer now that you’ve alerted him – if he isn’t gone already.
As we look across the world, and see Al-Qaeda increasing in strength in Pakistan, Mali, Somalia, Kenya, and Yemen, while Islamism takes over governments in Tunisia, Egypt, & Libya, as well as the continued oppression and slaughter of Syrians and Iranians by their own governments, we have ask:
Why have we dedicated a Battalion of Special Forces Troops to hunt down a has been guerilla leader that seems intent on just living out his life in the jungles of Africa, with no real outside interaction?
As the Obama Administration cuts 20,000+ Soldiers from the Army this year, and 100,000 Soldiers and Marines in the next few years, is this really the most important thing we need to focus Our very limited Special Forces efforts on?
@WOTN – Don’t discount the possibility that our SF BN deployment is part of an agreement to keep Ugandan forces involved in AMISOM and the fight against al Shabaab.
This isn’t complicated. It is all about one word with three little letters: o-i-l.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/world/africa/uganda-welcomes-oil-but-fears-graft-it-attracts.html
Kony needs to catch a flight to the “Land of the Big PX,” saunter in like everyone else… hide out in Detroit or the ATL and open up a fish food restaurant. If he ever gets caught, he’ll claim political persecution and be given refugee status. He then will be granted citizenship or permanent alien status.
He’ll then need to “write” a book on his experiences on how the USA was persecuting the wrong man simply because he was black and mistaken identity. Kony then will be put on Oprah or the View to promote his book (more money than a restaurant). Later he’ll be marching with Al Sharpton, Action Jesse Jackson (etal) when the “convenient issue” arises.
When he blows his book money and is short on dough, he’ll open up a church (tax free status).
That is how it works here in the “Big PX.”
Kony may be a convenient excuse. If Kony is hard to find, our SF will have to move around a bit to find him. And if they happen to start picking up intelligence on the Al-Qaeda situation in Africa during that time? Well, then the operation isn’t a loss.
Kony is probably dead someplace of his own stupidity, or maybe one of his followers got sick of his shit and shot him in the back. I remember when this Kony 2012 bullcrap first started, I posted some critical analysis of the video on Facebook, which caused no small amount of butt-hurt (oddly enough though, most of my stupid liberal hipster acquaintances were mocking the whole Kony thing before anybody else … go figure).
WELP, not more than a week later, the head of Kony 2012 threw his little naked tantrum in downtown San Fran and the rest is history.
Kony is the type of guy you’d find face down and naked in a Tijuana gutter with a used condom hanging out of his ass. Don’t know why, but that’s just how I imagine him.
Well, according to Teh Yawn, we need only throw in a few well-read writers and journos since they’d be able to find him asap.
Are we really putting revenue toward this? Seriously??? Un fuckin believable.
#5 Beretverde – I’d be careful about releasing classified Obama State Department documents like that…
Thank God we have so many special ops boys to spare and all. They will be the primary entity in Afghanistan post 14′ and they have so much manpower and all to dedicate to such a periphery mission. Giving another multiyear engagement to the operators shouldn’t effect them or anything. Great to see the Administration has its priorities straight.
P.S. Why the F*** is a Seal in command of this?
@Cedo – Do you reserve some of that consternation for all of the JCETs, SMEEs and ODA/MIST deployments that have taken place in ervey part of the world since 2001?
As I said above, we have a compelling interest to keep Uganda and Burundi engaged with AMISOM. I don’t see this as to steep a payment.
#12 My issue CI is that we simply don’t have alot of Manpower(including the regulars) to spare to begin with and must therefor employ it wisely.
There has been a bad habit post Vietnam of Special ops-izing minutia, that can be carried out by regular line units/advisors. This had given way recently because of the conflicts of the last decade, didn’t allow such a luxury. These old Army tasks(like policing) were picked back up by the USA. This special ops exclusivity is really wearing our operators thin as is, their limited numbers are needed in more important theaters. There wasn’t a single issue/task/capability in that article that couldn’t have been done/advised by the regular USA/USMC.
We are begining to employ Operators as we did before 9/11, not because they are necessarily the best guys for the job but the easiest for our political leadership to explain away if something should go wrong! That is the wrong reason to employ them in of itself.
@Cedo – I think ODAs are the best fit for this mission, but point taken overall.
CI: a couple of ODAs or one SF company, plus support, maybe. But if we’re actually devoting an entire SF BN to this effort, correct, well, that does seem like gross overkill to me.
And I’m with Cedo on the command issue. A SEAL O6 in command of what should be a company-sided Army SF mission? Huh?
Damn. Should read “company-sized” SF mission above. The word “correct” also should have been deleted. Missed those typos.
Not for nothing, but a Navy O6 tells me that there are more assets in country than what’s been released to the media; or more dynamic assets like SMU rotations.
CI: perhaps. But it’s also possible that the rank is due to protocol/political reasons as well. I’ve seen that.
And it’s also theoretically possible that the Navy wrangled the command slot via inter-service politics – though we all know stuff like that NEVER happens in real life. (smile)