The President hopes to augment international efforts in the middle of the African continent to subdue the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA has bee accused of human rights abuses including mass-murder, terrorism, kidnapping, and rape in an insurgency campaign that has lasted decades. Obama’s announcement comes amid growing criticism of the U.S. military presence overseas, despite a victory Libya where multinational forces, aided by the U.S., were successful in helping Libyan rebels oust their dictator, Gaddafi, after a months-long civil war. The troops, Obama says, will be “combat ready”, but in a support role only. They will be providing training, advice, and intelligence to national forces.

Subject to the approval of the various nations involved, these troops may deploy from Uganda into South Sudan, Central African Republica, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The LRA, which was formed in 1988 in northern Uganda by leader Joseph Kony, has waged a “war” in these four nations for over 20 years, kidnapping, raping, and murdering tens of thousands of innocent people. In addition, the LRA has developed an MO of pressing young men, even children, into service as LRA soldiers. They have attacked and massacred villages inside of Uganda’s borders. When they raid a village they kill what men they find there, and kidnap everyone else. Women may be raped or discarded, girls sometimes forced into marriage with LRA soldiers, and boys pressed into service. Young women that have escaped their “husbands” often return with HIV/AIDS from the repeated rapes.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague indicted Kony in 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2006, when the southern Sudan government attempted to broker peace talks between the LRA and Uganda, the ICC’s indictment became a problem. The LRA wanted it leader and top officials tried in Ugandan courts, rather than being extradited to the Hague for trial. The ICC responded that once the indictment had been issues, it could not be revoked. Kony never showed up for the peace talks.

In 2009 President Obama delivered the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Ugandan Recovery Act to aid Uganda in quelling the LRA and stopping Kony. Now, he plans to send troops to Uganda to assist local government’s military with addressing the LRA problem. This marks a turning-point in U.S. foreign policy, where the country is taking an active role in central African nations that have no real strategic purpose for the U.S.