First and foremost let me begin by saying how embarrassed I am to not have known about this. I feel like I am well versed in politics and world affairs… I stumbled upon Joseph Kony through a friend and was immediately entranced by the video I say on YouTube… I didn’t know what to expect… so I sat and watched one of the biggest tragedies I have ever seen… I cried and was ashamed that I was learning about this only now… and then I thought of how many more people that might not know…

Joseph Rao Kony (pronounced IPA: [koɲ];^[6] born around about July/September of 1961)^[1] is the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army(LRA), a Ugandan guerrilla group. While initially enjoying strong public support, the LRA allegedly turned on its own supporters, supposedly to “purify” the Acholi people and turn Uganda into a theocracy.^[2] Kony proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and aspirit medium, has nurtured a cult of personality, and claims he is visited by a multinational host of 13 spirits, including a Chinese phantom.^[2] Ideologically, the group is a syncretic mix of mysticism, Acholi nationalism, Islam, and Christian fundamentalism,^{[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]} and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and local Acholi tradition.^[18][19][20]

Kony has been accused by government entities of ordering the abduction of children to become child-sex slaves and child soldiers.^[21]An estimated 66,000 children became soldiers and two million people have been internally displaced since 1986.^[22] Kony was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2005 but has evaded capture.^[23] The LRA operates in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan.^[24]

Kony’s group was originally called the United Holy Salvation Army (UHSA), and was not perceived as a threat by the NRA. By 1988 it had become a major player in Ugandan affairs: an agreement between the NRA and the Uganda People’s Democratic Army (UPDA) left members of the UPDA unsatisfied, and many joined the UHSA as a form of rebellion. One such person was the UPDA founder Odong Latek, who convinced Kony to use standard military tactics instead of attacking in cross-shaped formations and sprinkling holy water. The new tactics proved successful, and the UHSA won several small victories against the NRA.^[31] The NRA responded by significantly weakening Kony’s group through a military campaign named Operation North. The operation was devastating to the UHSA and, with their numbers reduced from thousands to hundreds, they engaged in retaliatory attacks against NRA collaborators and terror against general civilian population. The LRA say that spirits were sent to communicate this mission directly to Kony.^[31]

The bulk of Kony’s foot soldiers were children.^[28] While estimates of the number of children conscripted since 1986 vary, some put the figure as high as 104,000.^[28] When abducting the children, Kony and his army often killed their family and neighbors, thus leaving the children with little choice but to fight for him.^[28] In 1992, Kony renamed the group the United Democratic Christian Army.^[32] For a decade, starting in the mid-1990s, the LRA was strengthened by military support from the government of Sudan, which was retaliating against Ugandan government support for rebels in what would become South Sudan.^[1]

If you have time… please watch this video… we all need to see…