Lord’s Resistance Army: The U.S. Military’s Unorthodox Mission Against Kony
Lord’s Resistance Army: The U.S. Military’s Unorthodox Mission Against Kony by Michael M. Phillips, Wall Street Journal
… Mr. Obira’s defection marked another no-shots-fired victory in one of the most unusual U.S. special-operations missions anywhere in the world.
In the twilight of the Lord’s Resistance Army, American commandos are relying less on kill-capture operations and more on psychological operations to lure die-hard militants out of the bush one by one, using their families as messengers.
American helicopters roam the skies deep in the center of Africa, blaring recorded come-home messages from mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles. U.S. Army psyop specialists create personalized leaflets with photos of fighters’ families, and U.S. planes drop them into the bush by the hundreds of thousands. American soldiers produce individualized family pleas to broadcast on jungle radio stations.
The American and Ugandan soldiers “are not there to harm you,” Mr. Obira’s mother said in her helicopter message. “They will bring you home safe.”…
