Uganda Child Soldiers - Monroe Monitor

Here are links to my new stories for Monroe Monitor

http://www.monroemonitor.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=53&SectionID=2&SubSectionID=55&S=1

http://www.monroemonitor.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=58&SectionID=2&SubSectionID=27&S=1

And this is the Uganda story before editing.... I like this one better (:

When the name Hitler is brought into conversation everyone is aware of the horrible history; when the name Joseph Kony is heard most people would be clueless of his actions and Joseph Kony himself. Both of whom are guilty; the charge being crime against humanity.

The problem is that history keeps repeating, and is happening right now especially in the African country, Uganda.

In Uganda Kony is described as an evil man who has the red eyes of the devil, because of this man there have been over a million people in Uganda displaced from their homes, innocents killed, women raped, and children being trained in violence. He is the power to the Lord’s Resistance Army; this rebel army has carried on the war with Uganda’s government forcing millions of innocent people to suffer.

The problem is that members of Kony’s army were innocent people too. It is estimated that ninety percent of the Lord’s Resistance Army are children. These children are abducted from their homes and brainwashed to kill, a child who may be as young as nine years old will have a gun in their hands before their tenth birthday.

Children are now in hiding every night in Uganda to keep out of sight from the rebel army. If taken they lose their families, dreams, and become invisible. A child soldier is invisible for no one knows if they live or die.

“World knows them as a rebel army, truth is they are just children,” said Jacob.

Jacob has the astonishing story of escaping Kony’s army. When Jacob was eleven he was kidnapped from his own home by the Lord’s Resistance Army; not only was one child abducted that night but fourteen others. Jacob and the other children were taken far off into the jungle where it became evident that they would most likely never see their families again.

“They told me that they do not do anything bad, that they are fighting for freedom,” Jacob quoted from a rebel soldier.

It took three long months before Jacob had the opportunity to escape. Throughout these months the rebel army had not given Jacob the responsibility of holding a gun or being on his own. They attempt to build a trust with the children they abduct, and after that trust is gained, training and corrupting children to thrive for violence is done.

Since his escape Jacob has been telling his story with Invisible Children, hoping to make America aware and bring hope and rescue to his country.

“Now as I talk I am visible,” said Jacob. “I am studying law this fall to help my country and its injustice.”

Rescue; a tour presented by Invisible Children with one desire: putting an end to Africa’s longest running war.

Although Invisible Children has marketed itself to the point of being on Oprah, millions of Americans are not even aware of the continuous war; a war that has been fought for more than twenty years.

Invisible Children through donations and scholarships is helping the people of Uganda. Not only are they fighting to put an end to child soldiers, but also finding ways to give the children an education. They are striving to give the families of Uganda their homes back after being displaced by Kony’s army, and jobs to those women taken and raped by the army to be a soldier’s wife.

The demand is for justice and freedom. The hope is for innocent children to stay innocent. Invisible Children welcomes you to be part of history in the making, for this story is not over.

Bush Doctrine

I was so nervous to debate in my CSI class but I'm going to say it I kicked debating ass! I beat the other conclusionist and my team won the whole debate!

My Conclusion:

“We cannot defend America and our friends by hoping for the best. We cannot put our faith in the word of tyrants, who solemnly sign non-proliferation treaties, and then systemically break them. If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long — Our security will require transforming the military you will lead — a military that must be ready to strike at a moment's notice in any dark corner of the world. And our security will require all Americans to be forward-looking and resolute, to be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives” These are words from former President Bush about the Bush Doctrine.

In a high school basketball game the opponents’ goal is to make a basket, terrorisms’ goal is to create fear and deliberately target and disregard safety of civilians through acts of violence. In basketball if our teams’ defense was down that makes their target, the basket an easy task. If our country does not strike when the threat of terrorism is upon us then we put our country at risk, then terrorism wins and makes their ‘basket.’

There are 3 main points to the Bush Doctrine; one of them is preempting strike. Before the Bush Doctrine and the act of preemptive strikes our country’s policy was more about treating countries equally and keeping a balance. With the Bush Doctrine it is about is about treating countries that harbor and support terrorism differently. We need to know that with the change of times there are changes when it comes to threats to our nation. The threats are now not limited to armies, navies, and other countries militaries but have come down to weapons of mass destruction that are so advanced can be easily carried, hidden, and used in our country with no warning. Since America is a strong nation that terrorist have in the pass struck against or attempted we cannot let our enemies strike us first.

“Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world; it is God's gift to humanity. We will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism.”

The United States is a strong country that has the gift of freedom, this has lead America to become a target to terrorism, having the Bush Doctrine is adding a threat to those countries that support terrorism. Another main point of the Bush Doctrine is to spread freedom across the globe by influencing countries the rule of law, freedom of worship, respect for women, and promoting world economic growth through capitalist free markets and free trade. In the United States we have a government that is chosen by the people and being responded to by the people is a desire for all people not just here in the United States and that is what the Bush Doctrine is influencing. When freedom is spread throughout the world it gives people hope instead of the fear that terrorism is spreading.

The Bush Doctrine is protecting America at the best it can with the seriousness of threats put upon us, also it is globally spreading freedom. Not only is it giving the feeling of safety to our country but throughout the world. It is a way to fight the idea of terrorism; it is replacing people’s thoughts of fear into hope.