Kony Video is Powerful and Impactful

It's all over the internet.  It's all over TV.  It's on your Facebook page.

A video gaining international attention is using the power of the Internet to stop Joseph Kony, the head of a small but infamous militia that has terrorized northern Uganda with killings, kidnappings, mutilations and torture.

Featured on national news show on all local and cable channels, the unusual and controversial new campaign spotlights the horrors inflicted by the Lord's Resistance Army, a militia that for years has been notorious for abducting children to fight as soldiers and suffer as sex slaves, as well as for mutilating its victims.

The video campaign was launched this week by Invisible Children Inc., a San Diego-based nonprofit that produced a half-hour documentary that aims to ramp up international pressure to arrest Kony. The militia leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes.

The LA Times web site reports that Kony has been pursued by the United States, which launched a military mission in Uganda last year to stop him and other Lord's Resistance Army leaders. U.S. officials said the brutal militia had pushed at least 400,000 people out of their homes. Yet Kony has so far remained on the loose.

The campaign argues that Kony must be made so famous that global pressure will stay on for the U.S. to continue its quest, helping governments in the region to track him down. It plans to paper cities with Kony posters on April 20, hoping to making the guerrilla leader a household name.

"If the world knows who Joseph Kony is, it will unite to stop him," says the Invisible Children website, which seeks donations and urges visitors to sign a petition calling for Kony to be brought to justice

The video quickly went viral; more than 32 million people had watched it on YouTube by Thursday morning. The phrase #stopkony is trending on Twitter as celebrities such as George Clooney, Rihanna and Zooey Deschanel urge their online followers to watch the video.

It's a long video, but worth the time if you haven't seen it, and, it's very powerful.