Updated | 6:02 p.m. Apparently sensing an opportunity to tarnish President Obamas standing with listeners who were unaware of the suffering caused by the African rebels who call themselves the Lords Resistance Army, Rush Limbaugh responded to the presidents deployment of 100 military advisers to combat the group in central Africa on Friday in a segment of his radio show headlined, Obama Invades Uganda, Targets Christians.
Mr. Limbaugh began his discussion of the group described by my colleagues Thom Shanker and Rick Gladstone as a notorious renegade group that has terrorized villagers in at least four countries with marauding bands that kill, rape, maim and kidnap with impunity by explaining that the Lord referred to in their name is not someone named Lord, but God. He said:
Now, up until today, most Americans have never heard of the combat Lords Resistance Army. And here we are at war with them. Have you ever heard of Lords Resistance Army, Dawn? How about you, Brian? Snerdley, have you? You never heard of Lords Resistance Army? Well, proves my contention, most Americans have never heard of it, and here we are at war with them. Lords Resistance Army are Christians. It means God.
Overlooking the detailed record of their brutality and bizarre practices, Mr. Limbaugh then added: 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 thats a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda.
After suggesting that Mr. Obama supported violence against Coptic Christians by Muslims in Egypt, Mr. Limbaugh then read aloud what he called the Lords Resistance Army objectives.
I have them here. To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people. Now, again Lords Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lords Resistance Army, what theyre trying to accomplish with their military action in these countries is the following: To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people; to fight for the immediate restoration of the competitive multiparty democracy in Uganda; to see an end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans; to ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda, to ensure unity, sovereignty and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans, and to bring to an end the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the L.R.A. ideology. Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting.
The conservative host, who has previously demonstrated a fondness for sharing information found on Wikipedia with listeners, even when it is incorrect or misleading, appears to have taken this list of objectives from a defense of the Lords Resistance Army delivered by one of its leaders 14 years ago, which is featured in the online encyclopedias entry on the groups ideology.
Mr. Limbaugh did not mention that the speech defending the rebel group was made in 1997 at a peace conference, organized by members of the ethnic group the Lords Resistance Army claims to represent, who characterized the conflict in northern Uganda this way: The L.R.A. has abducted thousands of people, mainly children, tortured and murdered; and looted and destroyed property. The government army has not been able to provide adequate protection to the civilian population.
According to the transcipt on his Web site, near the end of Fridays radio segment, Mr. Limbaugh said: Is that right? The Lords Resistance Army is being accused of really bad stuff? Child kidnapping, torture, murder, that kind of stuff? Well, we just found out about this today. Were gonna do, of course, our due diligence research on it. But nevertheless we got a hundred troops being sent over there to fight these guys and they claim to be Christians.
As Reuters reports, Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lords Resistance Army, initially attracted supporters in northern Ugandas Acholiland in the late 1980s with a creed based on a mix of mysticism and apocalyptic Christianity. Over the years the L.R.A. become known for chilling violence including what human rights groups say were the abductions of thousands for use as child soldiers or sex slaves, brutal club and machete attacks on victims.
Last year, my colleague C.J. Chivers reported, in a post on Mr. Konys unorthodox belief system, that the Lords Resistance Army leader was initially part of a failed rebel movement led by Alice Lakwena, who said she was possessed by a troupe of spirits who urged her to war, Mr. Kony has presented himself over the years as the channel through which these lingering voices communicate from the beyond.
A document obtained by Mr. Chivers from a former senior commander of the rebel group described in detail how Mr. Kony would initiate possession episodes and speak to his followers in the voices of spirits named Malia, Who Are You and Chairman Juma Oris.
Konys secretary would make the preparations, and Kony would dress in a white robe. A glass of water, a bible, and a rosary were placed on a table. To start the possession Kony would dip his fingers into a clear glass of water. Multiple spirits would pass through Kony in a single session. On average at least three spirits would talk in a session .
When Kony dipped his finger in glass of water he slumped forward for a few seconds, then sat up. Each spirit had a separate personality. His voice changed to a womans tone of voice when possessed by Malia. Some spirits spoke faster than others. Who Are You was rude quarreling and he complained a lot. Chairman Juma Oris talked slow and calm with a flat tone like an important person.
In response to Mr. Limbaughs defense of the Lords Resistance Army, Matthew Yglesias, who blogs for the liberal Think Progress site, quoted from a Human Rights Watch report detailing a brutal attack by the group. Mr. Yglesias argued: I think reasonable people can disagree as to whether or not chasing a relatively small band of depraved mass murderers around Central Africa is a reasonable thing for American military personnel to be doing. But lets make no mistake these are depraved mass murderers.
From the opposite end of the political spectrum, Erick Erickson the editor-in-chief of the conservative Web site RedState.com wrote 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 Ive heard about Barack Obama sending American troops to Africa to go after the Lords 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.
Mr. Erickson 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.
Obviously Obama needs to stop his unwarranted aggression against Christian groups fighting Muslims.
