Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media
3/22/2012
As media-induced frenzy over African warlord Joseph Kony reaches a fever pitch, Democratic Senator Christopher Coons has introduced a resolution that seems to provide legal cover for President Obama’s deployment of U.S. combat troops to Africa. Obama ordered the military intervention last October, without the approval of Congress, saying he wanted the “removal” of Kony from “the battlefield,” wherever that may be.
Coons serves as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs.
Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) under a 2005 warrant for crimes against humanity in his native Uganda, could be anywhere in Africa or may in fact be dead. The ICC says he is “at large” while Coons says the “exact location” of Kony and his forces, who may number as few as 200-300 men or as many as several thousand, is “unknown.”
Kony is certainly a minor player compared to his reported patron, the Islamic government of Sudan, which is accused of killing more than two million civilians in the South but provides oil to the Chinese government…
…The media have failed to question Obama’s military intervention in Africa, with Politico being one of the latest news organizations claiming that Obama had sent the 100 U.S. military troops “with Congress’ blessing.” In fact, Congress did not authorize this deployment.
“We’re in another war,” commented Andrew McCarthy on National Review online, at the time Obama announced the action. Noting that Obama had justified the deployment in the name of “our national security interests,” McCarthy rhetorically asked: “…didn’t Kony just try to rub out the Saudi ambassador or something? This’ll teach him to mess with us. Oh, he didn’t mess with us? Well, whatever—‘duty to protect,’ right?” The “duty to protect” is a U.N. doctrine justifying foreign intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign countries, supposedly to prevent atrocities.
It looks like Obama is primarily using U.S. troops to carry out the orders of the International Criminal Court, which wants Kony apprehended and put on trial. However, the ICC treaty, known as the Rome Statute, has not been approved by the U.S. Senate…
…The Coons/Inhofe resolution is cosponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Jeff Merkley, (D-Ore.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)…
Read the complete article at Accuracy in Media.
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