Back in October 2011, Rush Limbaugh probably had no way of knowing that one of his talking point stories would end up blowing up as big as it did. This was well before he called Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute”. This story is completely unrelated and is just now coming home to roost.
On October 14, 2011 Limbaugh spent some time talking about a report by Jake Tapper at ABC news that President Obama had sent 100 troops to Uganda to help fight the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which is Joseph Kony’s troops. Limbaugh derided the decision, which people of any political stripe might agree with. But, he spent a considerable amount of time using the opportunity to paint President Obama as siding with Muslims against Christians. His argument was that the group was called the “Lord’s” Resistance Army, thus obviously making it “Christian”. Therefore, Obama was fighting against Christians.
Now, a few months later, the Kony 2012 movement is in full swing and people all over the world are becoming aware of what a madman Joseph Kony is, what kinds of abuses are carried out by his men, and the extent of the evil he perpetrates under the banner of the “Lord’s” Resistance Army.
An archive search at RushLimbaugh.com reveals only one search result for the term “joseph kony“. It is the transcript of Limbaugh’s October 14 remarks entitled “Obama Invades Uganda, Targets Christians“. Here is a relevant portion of those remarks, but you should go view the entire thing yourself, in context.
Now, up until today, most Americans have never heard of the combat Lord’s Resistance Army. And here we are at war with them. Have you ever heard of Lord’s Resistance Army, Dawn? How about you, Brian? Snerdley, have you? You never heard of Lord’s Resistance Army? Well, proves my contention, most Americans have never heard of it, and here we are at war with them. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. It means God. I was only kidding. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. 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. That’s what the lingo means, “to help regional forces remove from the battlefield,” meaning capture or kill.
So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and — (interruption) no, I’m not kidding. Jacob Tapper just reported it. Now, are we gonna help the Egyptians wipe out the Christians? Wouldn’t you say that we are? I mean the Coptic Christians are being wiped out, but it wasn’t just Obama that supported that. The conservative intelligentsia thought it was an outbreak of democracy. Now they’ve done a 180 on that, but they forgot that they supported it in the first place. Now they’re criticizing it.
Lord’s Resistance Army objectives. I have them here. “To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.” Now, again Lord’s Resistance Army is who Obama sent troops to help nations wipe out. The objectives of the Lord’s Resistance Army, what they’re 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 LRA ideology.” Those are the objectives of the group that we are fighting, or who are being fought and we are joining in the effort to remove them from the battlefield.
The government of Uganda claims that Lord’s Resistance Army only has 500 or a thousand soldiers in total. So what’s the threat? If that’s the maximum size of their army, what’s the threat? A thousand soldiers? Now, 1100 soldiers because we have sent a hundred. I’m not making this up. This is Jacob Tapper. ABC News had reported that Obama got a letter off to John Boehner a couple days ago announcing this. It’s just for a few months until the Lord’s Resistance Army is eradicated. That’s all. Just a few months. Not much of a threat.