In a March 8 letter to The Post, “ ‘Kony 2012’ can take down world’s worst criminal,” Lexi Cramer calls for increased awareness of the ruthless practices of Ugandan guerrilla leader Joseph Kony.
While promoting grassroots activism as a means by which we can effect social change is itself a noble cause, the ‘Kony 2012’ movement for which Cramer advocates is misguided.
While it certainly must be acknowledged that Kony is an unscrupulous man who must be stopped, the solution proposed by the well-intentioned Invisible Children, Inc. is not only bad policy for Americans, but would hardly alleviate, if not outright exacerbate, the problem.
The political strife in Uganda did not begin, nor will it end, with Joseph Kony. Ugandan journalist Rosebell Kagumire notes that the Kony 2012 movement presents an oversimplified and outdated view of Uganda and notes that “the war is much more complex than just one man called Joseph Kony.”
Indeed, Kony is merely one player in a much broader political system with ills that will not disappear with the capture of one man. Americans are understandably uninformed on Ugandan politics, and perpetuating this condescending idea that we must swoop in and save a nation of defenseless people robs Ugandans of their personal agency, pride and dignity.
Moreover, as a sovereign nation with $15 trillion of debt and an already overextended military (we have troops in over 150 countries), it is not our job to police the world. There are countless Joseph Konys in the world; should the US remove Joseph Kony in Uganda, Turkmenistan, Somalia or Iraq?
History has shown such practice to be the action of empires expanding their power, not humanitarian solutions to deplorable situations. Supporting an opposition to Kony is best left to local initiatives and private charities with no reliance on the United States government.
Thus, while Cramer and the Kony 2012 movement’s call for increased awareness is both a desirable and necessary one, the drive for increased US military intervention to apprehend one man in place of a more localized solution to such a complicated problem is, at best, shortsighted and naive.
Chase Peterson-Withorn is a sophomore studying political science.
