The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Why Congolese leaders should be wary of US and UN involvement in their country’s affairs
THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | We begin from where we stopped in this column last week. Staff at the U.S. embassy in Kampala deliberately distorted my discussions with them regarding M23 rebels. They claimed I called them to seek the withdraw of sanctions against M23. Yet M23 did not talk to me about sanctions, and I did not talk to U.S. diplomats about sanctions either. M23 wanted to leverage U.S. influence in Kinshasa to reopen talks with the government in Kinshasa with a view to find a peaceful solution to the civil war in that country. Who in their sane mind would not seize such an opportunity?
Yet while disgusted by such cheap manipulation of my conversation with them, I was not surprised by their actions. It is difficult to guess the dirty schemes the U.S. embassy in Kampala and its government in Washington DC are cooking for Uganda and this region. And use of lies in pursuit of hidden agendas is a common U.S. foreign policy practice.
The U.S. went to war in Vietnam over lies that a Vietnamese vessel had sunk an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. The U.S. spent ten years, lost 58,000 soldiers and billions of dollars over this lie. Then they claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that Sadam Hussein was in cahoots with Al Qaeda. They manufactured “intelligence” to “prove” these claims. They invaded that country, killed millions of its citizens, spent over $3 trillion on that war and lost 6,000 soldiers based on these lies.
Yet only eight years later, they claimed Muammar Gaddafi was going to exterminate Libyans and intervened in that country under the pretext of the “responsibility to protect”. They removed Gaddafi, drunk to his death and installed extremist militias in power. Today, Libya is in chaos as these militias are indulging in mass murder. Yet America and her allies won’t evoke the “responsibility to protect” to intervene to save lives. The list of American lies as an instrument of foreign policy is too long to enumerate here.
These distortions are now happening back home in America as well. Two weeks ago, America convicted its former president for falsifying financial records but left free presidents who sent American kids to die in foreign wars and drained their treasury based on lies. I wonder how many American officials can sleep comfortably in the face of all these distortions. I also wonder how they manage to claim moral superiority in the face of all the evils their state has orchestrated in this world based on lies.
No country presents itself to the world in glamorous fashion as does the United States. As a young man I was fascinated by this American self-image: liberalism, democracy, freedom, charity, human rights etc. But as I have grown older, the more nuanced my view of this great nation became. America is not exceptional. As Barack Obama would say, it is a human experiment with idealism and realism, illusions and delusions, truths and lies, kindness and cruelty, generosity and meanness. I have been a beneficiary of American generosity. So, I criticise it with some restraint.
I try as much as possible to avoid moral judgments about America’s behavior. Instead, I seek to understand its policies and actions as a great power with clinical detachment. What are its interests? What are the forces, ideological and economic, that drive its leaders? Like those it is wont to criticise, American is trapped in the dynamics of power, forced by circumstances to act in particular ways. That is why they condemn the violence of Russian president, Vladmir Putin, in Ukraine but aid and abate Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including inviting as a “special guest” Israel’s genocidal prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, this week, to address a joint session of congress.
The retreat from idealism to realism freed me from the self-righteous moral indignation I used to express at bad events. It made me stoic, seeing bad things as normal and sometimes even inevitable. But in some ways, it also made me cynical. For instance, I don’t think anyone, or any group can change the world, at least not as suddenly and as perfectly as we think. That is realistic. Human society is too complicated to reduce to an experiment. Those who have tried: Stalin in Russia, Mao in China, George Bush in Iraq, Pol Pot in Cambodia etc. have ended committing mass slaughter without achieving their utopian dreams.
I have spent years reflecting on the small role I can play to improve the lot of our region. Thus, when M23 leaders approached me, I saw an opportunity to help Congolese talk to each other to solve their problems peacefully. However, in a moment of unguarded idealism and naivety, I thought the Americans can be allies in such an effort. I forgot they have interests in DRC and would manipulate the situation to promote their hidden agenda which I would not know. I feel sad that DRC leaders continue to put faith in the UN, that arm of the U.S., despite its atrocious role in the sad history of their country. Kenya’s William Ruto should beware!
Immediately after it gained independence in 1960, Congo’s first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, invited the UN to stabilise his country which had descended into chaos. The U.S. manipulated the UN to realise its agenda. It masterminded the death of Lumumba, thereby laying the foundation for the current instability in Congo. For 32 years, America propped Joseph Mobutu, one of the most brutal and kleptocratic leaders Africa has had.
Growing up, I read avariciously the giants of Africa’s anti-colonial struggle: Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ahmed Ben Bella, Nelson Mandela, Amilcar Cabral, Samora Machel, etc. Their portraits hang in office and home. Intriguingly, America was hostile to all of them. When requested by M23 leaders to talk to the U.S. to help find a peaceful solution for Congo, I forgot this fact. I invited hyenas to the meat market.
Yet I have no regrets. I would be very happy if America sanctions me, takes me to ICC and I serve the rest of my life in jail or even be hanged. I would have paid my dues for doing something great – try to help bring peace to Congo. It would be an honor to follow in the footsteps of Lumumba whose portrait hangs in my office and home. I would be excited to fly to Washington to be publicly executed. It would bring me satisfaction, meaning, purpose and fulfillment.
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amwenda@ugindependent.co.ug
“It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
― Henry Kissinger
All along I thought you knew how the world works. America’s strategic and economic interests come first in everything. What is in it for me? ‘Capitalism’, you understand ? Then comes control. Uganda has been under Hima-Tutsi since 1986. They later organized and captured Rwanda. Both presidents don’t want to hand over power and want their nuclear family to succeed them when they die in office. Uganda and Rwanda are among the top list of poorest countries on the globe. But Congo has natural resources that have good value and it is big. They know once they capture it, no one will ever rule and dislodge them as they will fight for each other and entrench family rule. America wants control, and to some extent hates family rule, unless it suites in their strategic and political interests. This explains their stance on Congo.
The U.S. policy in Africa tends to be reactive rather than proactive. It tends to be driven by events rather than to shape events. That’s explains why they (US diplomats) ended up twisting your conversation.
So true. They have bigger fish to fry in china and Putin and we have Mwenda here thinking they are on to him and the goings on of this backwater region
As a seasoned journalist we expect you to be impartial. But these days you are acting like a politician. The day you appeared dressed in a updf uniform I lost all respect for you. The Americans will not allow M23 to takeover North Kivu. Kagame and M7 should keep om dreaming because the Hima/Tutsi empire began in Uganda and ended in Rwanda.
Good observation Joyce. We heard Muhoozi current CDF warning that when you fight M23-his brothers, you fight him. He calls Kagame his uncle and Tutsi his brothers and they are really on a mission. Mwenda was brought it to hoodwink the Americans, but they understand that game well after dealing with Museveni and Kagame for long. The game was probably not in America’s interest.
Hati ori PEP omu UK – Politically Exposed Person. Ofunge bank account yawe Barclays Russell square London and others of the kind. Hatari ekyo, nibatwara sentenzawe, oba bazifreez.