Is the Kony 2012 video real or are we being played . . . yet again? (Part 1)

No one is attacking the Kony video Glenn. There is indeed a time for taking bold action but, doing so without knowing all the facts beyond a video leaves us all vulnerable to potentially taking the wrong action that can result in disillusionment . . . for example, were you aware that there are reports (and I myself have not yet verified this so please do your own research), that there was a major oil find in Uganda? What do you think? Besides Mossadegh in 1952, does anyone recall our support of the Shah of Iran or Panama’s Manuel Noriega – both despots that went from being supported by America to being “brought to justice.” The thing is that these individuals were always despots the only thing that changed was foreign policy. Of course, remember how we supported the very Afghan rebels against whom so many American lives have been lost, when they were at war with the Soviets? Or our support of Saddam Hussein in his war with Iran . . . a hostile Iran of our own making as a result of the overthrow of the democratically elected Mossadegh.  In short . . . it is reasonable to ask why Kony after all this time . . . are we and our sense of decency being played?

My comment in just one of the many Facebook comment streams regarding the Kony 2012 video

What is really amazing about the Kony 2012 video, something to which I was just introduced “virally” speaking yesterday, is the high degree of hostility one encounters when they swim against the current of mass opinion by asking honest questions in an effort to better understand the information being offered as fact.

Of course nowhere is the power of social networking and social media more aptly demonstrated than when one seeks to rally public sentiment through the use of visually upsetting imagery that can potentially obfuscate truth by inflaming strong emotions.

I often site the overthrow of the democratically elected Mossadegh government in Iran in 1952 by the United States at the request of then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, for no other reason than the leader’s intention to nationalize Iranian oil.  Churchill of course championed the American efforts known as Operation Ajax based on the prompting of what later became the British Petroleum company, who feared that a democracy in Iran would deprive them of their controlling stake in and huge profits from the country’s rich oil fields.  The overthrow of the government in Iran was justified under the banner of defending against a communist threat, a position that is contradictory in that the best way to repel encroaching communist interests would be the existence of a strong democratic government.

What is interesting is that it would not be unreasonable to link what happened in 1952 to the 9/11 attacks that cost so many innocent people their lives (http://wp.me/pydAP-22U).  Talk about unintended consequences.

Here we are in 2012 and the news of a major oil strike in Uganda opens up questions yet again as to whether or not there are other forces at play with the Kony 2012 video.  According to a November 25^th, 2011 article in the New York Times, “billions of barrels of oil reserves were found in Uganda five years ago,” which at the time “seemed like a gift from heaven to many in this poor, landlocked country.”

Against the backdrop of growing fears that such a rich find opens the doors to corruption, especially in a country that is generally considered to be one of the “most corrupt nations in the world,” one cannot help but wonder if foreign policy or intervention under the banner of creating stability for the Ugandan people would once again be considered a necessary course of action.  After all, if the emergence of democracy in Iran could result in a direct operation to undermine that government, imagine how much easier it would be to openly overthrow the Ugandan government . . . especially when public sentiments have been outraged by the visual atrocities of a video that has been viewed more than 55 million times.

This brings us back full circle to the main question . . . is the Kony video part of an orchestrated attempted to win public approval for foreign intervention in Uganda?

In part 2 of this series we will examine more closely those who would gain the most by Kony being brought to justice.

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