Machine Gun Preacher

I hate Africa. I hear that some people really like it, but mostly it just seems to generate an unending stream of horror stories. Bad-to-the-bone biker dude finds Jesus, straightens up, flies right, goes to Africa and gets involved. Starts a church and an orphanage in Southern Sudan/Northern Uganda. When the LRA (Joseph Kony's Lords Resistance Army) starts making trouble he gives them trouble back. What's the deal with the LRA? Wikipedia gives us a clue:

The area now known as Uganda has been divided along racial and language lines since at least the 4th century BC.

Kind of makes those jerks in the Balkans with their Johnny-come-lately 600-year-old feuds look like rank amateurs. From all accounts Kony and the LRA are just plain bad news. If you were to ask Kony he might give you a very rational explanation for what he is doing, or maybe irrational, but you can be sure he believes in what he is doing. Hitler was like that. People have differences of opinion and you get to choose which side of the argument you want to be on.

Problem is freedom fighters often look just like terrorists. The name they get depends on who's operating the printing press/radio & TV broadcasts.

We just had a discussion about some kind of treaty that was going to restrict arms sales and the NRA came out against it on the basis that 1) governments have been the biggest perpetrators of mass murder, and 2) freedom fighters need guns too.

I'm reading The Night Manager by John LeCarre, and the target of this undercover operation is a gun-runner who is supplying the South American drug cartels with all kinds of weapons.

The world is a complicated place. Sometimes I think people just like to fight/argue/squabble. After all, that's when we feel most alive.

Machine Gun Preacher