Rush Limbaugh Reaches a New Low – Attacks Mr. Obama on Sending Troops to Combat Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda

 Amazing - Because No One Thought a New Low Was Possible

In the African nation of Uganda there is a rebel group called the Lord’s Resistance Army.  Here is how the group is described in a New York Times report.

a notorious renegade group that has terrorized villagers in at least four countries with marauding bands that kill, rape, maim and kidnap with impunity. . . It is led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet known for ordering village massacres, recruiting prepubescent soldiers, keeping harems of child brides and mutilating opponents.

Last year by unanimous vote in the Senate and a voice vote in the House that had overwhelming approval, the Congress passed a law that provided for the President to work to combat the group.  The group had also been targeted by President George W. Bush

American efforts to combat the group also took place during the administration of President George W. Bush, which authorized the Pentagon to send a team of 17 counterterrorism advisers to train Ugandan troops and provided millions of dollars worth of aid, including fuel trucks, satellite phones and night-vision goggles, to the Ugandan Army. Those efforts scattered segments of the Lord’s Resistance Army in recent years; its remnants dispersed and regrouped in Uganda’s neighbors. 

Using the authority in the legislation the President has ordered 100 American troops to Uganda to stop this horrific organization. 

“For more than two decades, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has murdered, raped and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women and children in central Africa,” Mr. Obama wrote in a letter to Congress announcing the military deployment. “The LRA continues to commit atrocities across the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan that have a disproportionate impact on regional security.”

The decision by Mr. Obama to deploy armed military advisers into the region was welcomed by human rights advocates who have chronicled the atrocities committed by Mr. Kony and his subordinates.

But no action by Mr. Obama can go un-condemned by Rush Limbaugh.  In an amazing display of ignorance on the part of Mr. Limbaugh, he said this

most Americans have never heard of it, and here we are at war with them. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. It means God. . . . “They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops, to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda.”

Yes, to Mr. Limbaugh sending troops to fight the LRA is just another action by Mr. Obama to support Muslims and kill Christians.  But even Conservative commentators, ones who have actual knowledge of the situation support the President on this one.

 Erick Erickson wrote on the conservative Web site Red State on Sunday night: “In the past 72 hours, I have gotten lots of e-mails from lots of people who should know better asking me if I’ve heard about Barack Obama sending American troops to Africa to go after the Lord’s Resistance Army. The people hearing the name assume it is a Christian group fighting radical Islamists in the Sudan or some such. It is no such thing.” He added: “The group has notoriously gone through Uganda capturing children and turning them into soldiers and, when not successful, murdering them. The group engages in sex trafficking, slavery, murder, mutilation, and the list goes on and on.”

The problem here is that given Mr. Limbaugh’s wide audience, his ignorance may foment opposition to what everyone who has the slightest knowledge of the situation regards as a humane act to fight terrorism and atrocities.  But for Mr. Limbaugh, allowing the actions of the LRA to continue and fomenting religious divisions and hatred is just an insignificant price to pay to attack Mr. Obama. 

Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Expression is a good thing, but in Mr. Limbaugh’s mouth it can be an ugly, destructive thing.