The current war on terror is fighting to secure the freedom that is being threatened by terrorists around the world. The hope is that this desire for freedom from terrorism extends to all people and it is not limited to citizens of the United States. The war on terror should be expanded to fight all terrorist groups.
One such terrorist group is the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. This is a group of rebels led by Joseph Kony who want to overthrow the current Ugandan government. Their goal is to rule Uganda according to the Biblical Ten Commandments.
A BBC report said that in a Nov. 6 attack, the terrorist group raided villages in Uganda and \slaughtered"" 60 people. Nov. 17, they reportedly killed 50 more people. Father Sebhat Ayele, a Ugandan priest, said 200 civilians had been killed in the last three weeks by this group. It is estimated that more than 1.3 million people have been displaced from their homes as a result of the LRA.
The LRA abducts, tortures and kills the people living in the villages they attack, according to reports. A 23-year-old Ugandan man named David recounts the abuses he experienced after being abducted by the LRA: ""They tied me and laid me down. They told me not to cry. Not to make any noise. The one man sat on my chest, men held my arms, legs and one held my neck. Another picked up an axe. First he chopped my left hand, then my right. Then he chopped my nose, my ears and my mouth with a knife.""
The army of the LRA is reportedly made up of children who are abducted from the villages that the terrorist group attacks. The children are taken back to the camps and are brainwashed by the LRA. The boys are then trained as soldiers while the girls are used as sex slaves.
The atrocities committed by the LRA has caused recent UN envoys to Uganda to say that the humanitarian situation in northern Uganda is worse than in Iraq or anywhere else in the world.
If the war on terror is really about ridding the world of terrorism and freeing people from the fear and violence that terrorist groups create in a society, then the United States must make it a priority to work with the Ugandan army in their effort to destroy the LRA.
