Youtube video blogger Mark McGowan has made an interesting statement today:-

The "Kony 2012" campaign is seemingly a well-meaning campaign to expose the use of child soldiers and mass killings by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. That may seem a noble cause on the surface, unfortunately - the campaign is replete with hypocrisy (regarding Western influence in Africa, particularly since 9/11 and the establishment of AFRICOM - support of foreign nations committing atrocities in the Congo, etc) and widespread hegemonic competition with other nations vying for a slice of the African corporate pie (i.e. China, Russia, Brazil, etc).

There are some good critiques of the campaign here:-

" it is not, as the video implies, an 30,000-strong army of Ugandan child-soldiers, but a group of only a couple hundred at most (the 30,000 figure referring to all the children abducted over the past quarter of a century) which has been in decline for years. It has not even operated in Uganda since 2006 – Kony is currently believed to be in the Central African Republic. Furthermore, there has been no sign whatsoever of the US government planning to withdraw these military advisors, rendering the stated purpose of the campaign rather dubious. Indeed, U.S. Africa Command has been providing the Ugandan army with assistance for years before Obama’s deployment of October. Furthermore, in their struggle with the LRA, the Ugandan military, and the paramilitary organization the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, have perpetrated numerous and severe atrocities – yet Kony 2012 and “Invisible Children Inc.” unreservedly support both.

Most importantly, there appears to be little to no grassroots support for the interventionist agenda of Invisible Children. North Ugandan religious leaders are openly opposed to U.S. military engagement – Archbishop John Baptist Odama, chairman of the Episcopal Conference at Gulu put it thus: “Our stand as Acholi religious leaders is that we do not want the aspect of pursuing Kony with military means, [which] will just make the conflict and suffering spill over to other places.” http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/stop-kony-stop-conning/

"Despite President Obama’s claims that the conflict is a “national security interest” the LRA has no history of fighting against the US."
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/02/22/us-troops-in-four-african-countries-to-fight-christian-militants/

"Due to the complete absence of LRA activity in Uganda, it becomes feasible that the US may be planning further operations in the resource rich DRC. Over six million Congolese nationals have been killed in war since 1996, largely with US complicity. The regimes of Paul Kagame in Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni in Uganda have both received millions in military aid from the United States. Since the abhorrent failure of the 1993 US intervention in Somalia, the US has relied on the militaries of Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia to carry out US interests in proxy.

Paul Kagame of Rwanda has been given free reign by the US to conduct military operations inside DRC in the on-going ethnic conflict in that region following the 1994 Rwandan genocide. For Ugandan participation in the fight against Somalia’s al Shabaab, Museveni receives $45 million dollars in military aid. The US has contributed enormous sums to these nations and now is beginning to consolidate its presence in the region under Barack Obama and AFRICOM, the United States African Command. The LRA has contributed to less than one hundred unverified deaths in the past twelve months. Considering that the United States completely ignored events in DRC and Rwanda that collectively resulted in nearly seven million deaths, their participation against the ailing Lord’s Resistance Army is completely absurd by comparison."

http://www.prometheanpost.com/2012/03/kony-2012-wrapping-imperialiam-in.html

"More generally, the LRA provides an excellent excuse for the US to establish a military presence in four African countries: Uganda, CAR, DRC and South Sudan. Africa is increasingly being portrayed as the next major front in the war on terror. The US army, through its Africa Command, keeps making links between Al Shabaab, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram in Nigeria, painting a picture of some kind of African terrorist supergroup. It’s worried about al Qaeda getting a foothold in Africa, and in response is trying to pre-emptively establish its own foothold in Africa. The lawlessness of countries like CAR, DRC and South Sudan make them ideal potential conduits for most kinds of terrorist activities, not to mention the criminal activities which help, no matter how circuitously, fund global terror. It makes sense, therefore, to have American ears to the ground among the security elites of those countries, both to listen and to influence, and to develop systems of trust and cooperation in these areas that are led by US expertise. What better way to achieve this than to help them in their fight against a common enemy?

So even as the US joins the battle against Joseph Kony and the LRA, its focus remains firmly on the larger war on terror against al Qaeda and Islamic militancy."

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-10-17-us-troops-hunt-al-qaeda-in-africa-not-the-lra

"The reality in Uganda is an absolute, murderous mess. As much as the LRA "rebels", Museveni's government (helped by Washington) has also perpetrated horrendous massacres against civilians. Kony may even be an amateur compared to Museveni - a sort of dictator for life who has just supervised the displacement and mass murder of at least 20,000 Ugandans on behalf of British corporations. Additionally, Museveni basically stole the Ugandan elections early this year.

Obama's Uganda surge should be seen as a crucial exchange of favors with Museveni - who has sent thousands of Ugandan troops to the African Union (AU) force that is fighting the hardcore Islamist al-Shabaab in Somalia. So while Uganda fights a proxy war for the US in Somalia, Washington helps the dictator to get rid of the LRA "rebels". No wonder the Pentagon is quite fond of Uganda; Museveni recently got $45 million in equipment, including four small drones.

The LRA - a ragged bunch of hardcore Christian fundamentalists - is based in northern Uganda but spread out between four countries, including the new South Sudan and Congo, in Central Africa. They carry no heavy weapons. They don't stand a chance of destabilizing the Ugandan government - much less being a "national security" threat to the US. Bogeyman Kony may be in hiding somewhere along the immense Sudan-Congo border, with no more than 400 warriors left.

Uganda's proximity to the new country of South Sudan is key in the whole equation. So far, for Northern Sudan the LRA has been a convenient, weaponized firewall against Western puppet Museveni. But most of all, this whole area is prime real estate where the fierce battle between China and the Americans/Europeans plays out, centered on oil and minerals, all part of the Great 21st Century African Resource War. "

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MJ18Dj06.html

"The 30-minute video, Kony2012, was produced by three American videographers campaigning for greater efforts to capture Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

But Kony and his diminishing troops, many of them kidnapped child soldiers, fled northern Uganda six years ago and are now spread across the jungles of neighbouring countries.

“What that video says is totally wrong, and it can cause us more problems than help us,” said Dr Beatrice Mpora, director of Kairos, a community health organisation in Gulu, a town that was once the centre of the rebels’ activities.

“There has not been a single soul from the LRA here since 2006. Now we have peace, people are back in their homes, they are planting their fields, they are starting their businesses. That is what people should help us with.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/uganda/9131469/Joseph-Kony-2012-growing-outrage-in-Uganda-over-film.html

The oil angle? Recent oil exploration in Uganda...