final exam due 6/5 plus end of term notes to all

[MG]

Mariz Girgis
Professor O'Connell
English 101 Section 3226

5 June 2010

Mass murderering individuals like Jospeh Kony need to be stopped
at all cost. Certainly justice will prevail if a person like Kony is
caught, but if people like him are not caught, then their killings
only be considered self defense by society. By using God as an excuse
for the evil acts that he commited, Jospeh Kony was being ignorant and
disrespectful. How could a person say they are following the Ten
Commandments when they kill, slaughter, and rape children? Individuals
who commit such heinous acts against their own people deserve to have
a bounty on their heads. The LRA considers itself a Christian group,
but how can they claim they have anything to do with Christianity when
they clearly go against everything Christianity preaches. Christianity
represents the fullness of love, peace, purity, charity, and
forgiveness. This group committed murder and rape. These wicked acts
are anti-Christian. Joseph Kony's actions were cruel, inhumane, and
evil. Mass murderers like Kony not only abuse their political power ,
but they purposely abuse and endanger their own fellow man and that is
why capturing and or annihilating them is the only way of protecting
innocent lives .

Now some would argue that it is better to not kill people like
Kony because it is better for a court to bring people their justice.
That’s a great argument but the problem is though, what if Kony is
never caught? What if he continues to spread and teach violence while
he is in hiding? Individuals like Kony can be extremely tricky and
manipulative. Jospeh Kony kidnapped children (mostly boys ) and forced
them kill their own family. He made children kill their own flesh and
blood just to prove their loyalty (Kabiza website) . These poor boys
only did that out of fear. Kony was terrifying children so much that
he forced them to kill their own family. Children feared that their
legs, arms, hands ,lips, would be cut off if they did not cooperate
(Kabiza website) .How will we then go about protecting innocent people
from the reach of such a manipulative and dangerous man. Kony turned
innocent little boys into an army of murderers. The LRA which is the
group Joseph Kony lead, not only attacked the people of Uganda, but
the people of Nakwa to (Human Rights Watch website). It's been said
that Kony did these thing because he hated the government of Uganda
and wanted the people of Uganda to be all Christians (NNDB website).
But Christianity is not a religion of aggression. It is the religion
of peace love tolerance, and harmony. There is no excuse for what
Jospeh Kony did. Joseph Kony was a con man who was just thirsty for
political power. He claimed that he wanted to make Uganda Christian.
How does he go about that though? He does it through war! He does not
even respect people's God given right to choose their own religion.
Christ himself gave people the choice of following him. Jesus Christ
never forced anyone into following him, even though he was the Truth
and Life. Kony is just a man who wanted to wage war using religion as
an excuse. He used religion as a means to get him political power
rather than salvation all while afflicting pain and suffering on the
people of Uganda.


In the mid of 2004 the president of Uganda referred to the ICC
for the crimes of the LRA (Human Rights Watch website). The ICC
investigated the crimes of the LRA and now has arrest warrants for
them (Human Rights Watch website). One thinks that if they are caught
and brought to justice that will be a great truimph, but if not, then
their annihilation would only be a way for the people of Uganda and
all the cites surrounding it to be safe. It would be considered self-
defense for Uganda if these people were killed. The City of Uganda
needs a bill to improve the justice system in its country. They need a
bill to improve their schools and their health care. If such bills are
introduced and passed, then the people of Uganda would be able to
strengthen their society and government so that they would not fall
prey to people like Kony again. Bills that strengthen the Ugandan
people will help them protect themselves in the future. The
Congressional bill S.1067 provides great help for the people of
Uganda. The Congressional bill S.1067 helps to rebuild and improve the
justice system of Uganda (Library of Congress website). It provides
programs that help with the psychosocial trauma for Ugandan people
( Library of Congress website). The people of Uganda suffered a deeply
miserable way and they deserve to be given some hope. They deserve to
live like other human beings who have peace and this bill gives them
an opportunity for that. In regards to Jospeh Kony though, people
like him always get what they deserve in the end . For as the Bible
teaches " And Will Not God Bring about Justice for His Chosen Ones,
Who Cry out to Him Day and Night? Will He Keep Putting Them
Off?" (Luke 18:7).




Works Cited:
"Trail of Death | Human Rights Watch." Home | Human Rights Watch. 28
Mar. 2010. Web. 04 June 2010.
<http://www.hrw.org/en/node/89320/section/11>.

"Joseph Kony." NNDB: Tracking the Entire World. 2010. Web. 04 June
2010.
<http://www.nndb.com/people/398/000022332/>.

"Who Is Joseph Kony?" Out of Africa - Too. 28 Feb. 2010. Web. 05 June
2010.
<http://kabiza.com/WhoIsJosephKony.htm>.


"S.1067 Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda
Recovery Act of 2009." THOMAS (Library of Congress). Web. 04 June
2010.
<http://thomas.loc.gov/>.


"Luke 18:7 And Will Not God Bring about Justice for His Chosen Ones,
Who Cry out to Him Day and Night? Will He Keep Putting Them Off?"
Online Parallel Bible: Weaving God's Word into the Web. 2004-2010.
Web. 05 June 2010.
<http://bible.cc/luke/18-7.htm>.

[MG]

[Laura C.]

Best Course of Action Against Joseph Kony
Laura Cortes
English 101 Section 3226
Professor O’Connell


It has been 23 years since Joseph Kony formed the Lord’s Resistance
Group also known as the LRA. It has also been 23 years that Uganda has
been terrorized by this mad man claiming he wants to make a Christian
Nation. It is these types of world conflicts that leave so many people
scratching their heads wondering why so much time has passed and
nothing has been done to stop terrorists like Joseph Kony from
murdering, raping, kidnapping, and enslaving the people of Uganda. At
this point, 23 years later, the question that begs to be answered is
what is the best approach to stopping Kony and the LRA? For many of
his victims, Joseph Kony’s death and the complete annihilation of the
LRA would be more than enough to satisfy their need for revenge.
Realistically speaking though, his death would be an easy way out,
practically a gift for a criminal who deserves to receive all the
punishment a court has to offer. Thus the question imposed is finally
answered; the best approach or course of action in dealing with a
terrorist such as Joseph Kony is to arrest him. Arresting and putting
him on trial might seem like such a minimal act but it would be the
only way to force Kony to be truly accountable for every single life
he ever terrorized while using God as an excuse to do so. Joseph Kony
has no excuse for what he has done and even with a trial there is no
way he would ever walk out as a free man, but it’s a necessary step
the international community needs to take in order to stop terrorists
in the future, We do not need a war; we do not need to kill any more
LRA members. We need to arrest Joseph Kony. I would like to put him on
trial to explain why he was abducting children. (Luis Moreno Ocampo
ICC Judge, 2010). Then again, if we look back to how much the
international community has actually achieved in the past, perhaps
simply going in and destroying Joseph along with the LRA would be the
only way to truly free the people in Uganda.

Joseph Kony hasn’t killed as many people as Adolf Hitler did during
the Holocaust, but his reign of terror has lasted a lot longer.
Fundamentally very little differentiates these two terrorists. Of
course Hitler sought to create a super Aryan race while Joseph Kony
claims he simply wished to create a Christian nation modeled after the
Ten Commandments. As we can see, the goals all terrorists seem to want
to achieve are illogical to most people. Kony lives with a twisted
sense of reality and no real concept of right and wrong. It’s hard for
regular people to understand how a seemingly kind act could go so
horrendously wrong but it’s what happened with Kony and the LRA.
Still, the actual amount of time Joseph Kony spent “protecting” his
people was so minimal no one can really remember how that was. It
quickly became corrupted and before the Acholi people knew the LRA was
kidnapping children to increase their numbers, young girls were being
turned into sex slaves (“wives”), and whoever was left over was
brutally mutilated if not murdered. Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo, believes that Joseph Kony
should be captured and put on trial. Starting a war and seeking to
destroy the LRA in its entirety would not resolve the conflict and the
root of the problem would not be eliminated. Even though the majority
of Kony’s soldiers were forced to join his army they have committed
crimes that they must be held accountable for. Then again it can be
argued that these poor children have been brain washed to believe
Joseph Kony is invincible, When I asked whether the LRA would
disintegrate if Kony died, he struggled to comprehend the question.
“Kony would never die,” he said. “I’m sure he cannot be killed.” (Sam
Farmar, 2006). In the end the only one that should be held responsible
for every horrible death and for all the suffering the nation of
Uganda has gone through is Joseph Kony. The warrant that was placed in
2005 has not been taken seriously by the international community. The
lack of seriousness in regards to capturing Kony only encourages him
to continuing tormenting innocent people. Goldhagen often condemns the
lack of unity between nations when it comes to fighting terrorism and
it is with good reason because so little has been achieved in the past
23 years in terms of stopping the LRA’s tyranny. Regardless of all the
bills being passed or U.S. sponsored reward programs being put into
place to encourage people to stop terrorism it is all a joke in the
large scheme of things. If effort was really put into action Joseph
Kony could be taken down most likely with minimal casualties. Once
captured he could stand trial for every single atrocious act he ever
thought he could justify by claiming it was all done for God and if
the court saw it fit perhaps he would even be put to death, but only
in this manner would it be the correct way.

Countless acts of terrorism have been perpetrated all over the world
by many different so called leaders. Unfortunately many have not been
capture and put on trial for the crimes they have committed against
humanity. Joseph Kony can dilute himself to believe that he has done
nothing wrong and that everyone else is to blame for the suffering of
the people in Uganda. But when it comes down to it he is nothing more
than a monster that tries to hide behind God for justification. Even
though the correct thing to do would be for the international
community come together and capture him so he could stand trial for
all the crimes he has committed, yet on that same coin no one would be
appalled if he was simply murdered in the process. Yes, someone should
be held accountable for all the crimes but at the same time said
crimes have been so grotesque that his death would be almost euphoric
for those that survived. In the end it doesn’t truly matter how Joseph
Kony comes to justice or how the LRA is stopped, all the discussions
between the different nations needs to stop because in the long run
actions speak much louder than words.

References:

Jospeh kony. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nndb.com/people/398/000022332/

Uganda's Child Soldiers (Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army) .
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://kabiza.com/Lira-Children-Kony-Rebels.htm

Farmar, S. (2008, June 28). I Will Use the Ten Commandments to
Liberate Uganda. Retrieved from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article680339.ece

Kiggundu, E. (2010, May 30). I am waiting for evidence on Buganda
killings, says ICC chief. Retrieved from
http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8706:i-am-waiting-for-evidence-on-buganda-killings-says-icc-chief&catid=34:news&Itemid=59