I’ve Heard This Song Before

On Friday, ABC News reported that President Obama would be sending 100 U. S. troops to Uganda to help that country deal with the forces of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), it’s leader Joseph Kony, and senior leaders of the LRA.

The article reports:

The president made this announcement in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Friday afternoon, saying that “deploying these U.S. Armed Forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter-LRA efforts in central Africa.”

He said that “although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense.”

I will not argue that the LRA is a nasty group of people. I just hate to see any more U. S. troops deployed anywhere. It would seem to me that if the United Nations were worth anything, this would be a job their peace-keeping forces could do. I understand that the United States makes up a large portion of those forces, but I truly think it is time for that to change.

Just a reminder. According to Wikipedia:

November 1, 1955 — President Eisenhower deploys the Military Assistance Advisory Group to train the ARVN (South Vietnamese Army). This marks the official beginning of American involvement in the war as recognized by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

We have forgotten how to fight a war. You go in with guns blazing, kill the bad guys, help set up a viable government, then leave. Consider how Japan and Germany were treated after World War II. Japan had not been a democracy and their were serious doubts as to whether the Japanese were capable of being a stable, capitalistic, democracy. Frankly, I think they got it! Sending in advisers leads to more advisers, leads to soldiers, leads to more soldiers, leads to ridiculous rules of engagement. leads to dead Americans. I understand that the LRA are bad people, but America has no national security interest in Uganda. I wouldn’t object to putting together a group of countries to send in troops, but I object to America sending in 100 troops by itself.