Phony Kony

After this mess made by Jason Russell, one of the founders of Invisible Children (Kony hunters extraordinaires), I felt like some sort of thoughts could be put on paper.  Always need a spring board, and why not Chris Blattman?  I like Blattman's critique on advocacy: "successful advocacy often tells a simple story; simple stories usually lead to simple solutions; and simple solutions can do more harm than help. If you want to help, your first duty is to make sure you don’t make things worse".  (I also think this analysis of Invisible Children, which can be applied to all advocacy groups, is awesome).  So far so good.  I disagree with Blattman's analysis.

Suppose you believe (as I [Blattman] do) that capturing or killing Kony is the best of a bunch of bad options. And suppose you also believe (as I do) that, to capture or kill the man, Central African governments will need advanced military, intelligence, and special forces support.

Capturing or killing Kony is irrelevant, from my understanding; the LRA is largely out of Uganda, and Kony hasn't had a presence for quite a few years.  I'm not sure I agree with his latter conclusion, as well.  The LRA is becoming more and more sparse; Uganda and other Central African governments have done fine without superior military might, intelligence, or special forces support.  They need coordination, as with any fight with mobile guerrilla resistance units.  Granted, awareness from the general public can motivate governments into some action.

One major concern I have is...  Even though the LRA's actions are despicable, an interview with Kony I saw brought up a serious issue in Uganda.  The LRA allegedly started their fighting because of the corruption in Uganda politics.  I'm working on a paper related to corruption, and Uganda's government kind of sucks.  Its democracy is somewhat of a sham.  Throughout all this talk about Kony, why hasn't this been brought up?  Save the children from Kony, and save the Ugandans from their government?