In Uganda, we still do not know how many soldiers we lost in the disastrous Congo campaign. When the last of our soldiers returned from the war-torn Congo region of Ituri, they walked for hundreds of miles (the planes were a preserve of the senior commanders and their business guests), spending nights on the way.
Many of them were dirty, and looked hungry and emaciated. There were no rejoicing civilians to welcome them, apart from the occasional curious onlookers.
Any man or woman who puts his or her own life on the line in defence of his or her country is worthy of being called a hero. Question: Why have most of us paid scant attention to the UPDF soldiers who have been returning from Congo?
Answer: Because many of us did not see the UPDF campaign in Congo as our war. We saw it as Mr Yoweri Museveni's war.
No-Holds-Barred 'There's No Hero in Museveni's War'
The Monitor (Kampala)
COLUMN
July 24, 2003
Posted to the web July 24, 2003
Peter G. Mwesige
Kampala
The War in Iraq has already produced its first hero, even if recent attacks on American soldiers there suggest it is far from over.
On Tuesday, national and international media representatives converged on the small town of Elizabeth, West Virginia to cover the home coming of former POW Jessica Lynch. CNN and the other cable news networks covered the event live. As The Washington Post had reported in an advance story, Lynch's return home "inspired fanfare worthy of a visiting head of state."
The 20-year-old Lynch, an army supply clerk, was captured in March when her 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed near the Iraqi city of Nasiriya. Eleven American soldiers were killed in the attack.
Her rescue from an Iraqi hospital by US commandos eight days later was captured on night vision camera and the pictures of the operation turned her into a cult hero in the US.
A BBC documentary that later alleged that the story of the rescue was stage-managed said it was "one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived."
The 'BBC Correspondent' programme said the US military knew there were no Iraqi forces guarding the hospital where Lynch was held, and that they fired blanks to "make a show" of the operation.
Initial media reports had also said Lynch had fought fiercely when her convoy was attacked, and that she was shot and stabbed after running out of ammunition. But later reports indicated she had neither been shot nor stabbed, and that she had tried to fire her gun but it jammed.
This was not to be the last of the stories accusing American soldiers of stage-managing military events in Iraq, but it did not erode the celebrity status of Private Lynch.
There were reports of television networks fighting over the exclusive rights to her story, and suggestions that it would be turned into a movie, 'Saving Private Lynch' (after Steven Spielberg's thriller, 'Saving Private Ryan').
Lynch, who has been in seclusion at an army medical centre in Washington, DC since April, was on Monday awarded three military medals, before being released on Tuesday. She arrived in her hometown aboard a Black Hawk helicopter, her left foot still in a cast.
The fanfare at her homecoming was not unlike what our Entebbe saw when George W. Bush paid a three-hour visit earlier this month. An estimated 2,000 people, many of them waving placards reading "Welcome Home Jessica" lined the 8km route to her home.
The potholes along the main road had been filled, and volunteers had expanded her two-bedroom house into a four-bedroom home with a wheel-chair accessible bedroom and bathroom. Over $60,000 was realised in volunteer contributions.
As I watched Private Lynch addressing journalists and well-wishers, I could not help thinking about our own soldiers who have been entering their mama ingia pole abodes upon return from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Admittedly, the drama surrounding Private Lynch's rescue, and the fact that she was a sweet young woman contributed to all the interest and support she has attracted from the American public. However, Americans have always welcomed their foreign war-serving soldiers with fanfare. And the death of even one soldier is treated as a national tragedy.
In Uganda, we still do not know how many soldiers we lost in the disastrous Congo campaign. When the last of our soldiers returned from the war-torn Congo region of Ituri, they walked for hundreds of miles (the planes were a preserve of the senior commanders and their business guests), spending nights on the way.
Many of them were dirty, and looked hungry and emaciated. There were no rejoicing civilians to welcome them, apart from the occasional curious onlookers.
Any man or woman who puts his or her own life on the line in defence of his or her country is worthy of being called a hero.
Question: Why have most of us paid scant attention to the UPDF soldiers who have been returning from Congo?
Answer: Because many of us did not see the UPDF campaign in Congo as our war. We saw it as Mr Yoweri Museveni's war.
I was opposed to the US war in Iraq, but we have to give the Bush administration its due. It explained and justified the war to Congress and the American public (even if it relied on dubious intelligence reports), and by the time the guns started, almost two-thirds of the public was behind the American military campaign.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the staunchest ally of the US in the Iraq war, did not have the same popular support, but he also made a clear case before the British Parliament and the public long before the war started.
In Uganda, Parliament, not to mention the public, did not know about the deployment of our soldiers in Congo. And as the war unfolded, it became increasingly questionable whether our troops had gone to Congo to deny ADF rebels and the Interahamwe a base in the vast eastern part of that country, as the government was claiming.
The business opportunities that Congo presented were quickly taken over by senior army officers and Museveni's relatives, while the military campaign drained resources from other important sectors, such as health and education. Meanwhile, the ADF continued terrorising parts of western Uganda, and there was no end in sight to Joseph Kony's rebellion in the north.
In the court of public opinion, George W. Bush's war in Iraq came off as America's war, while the UPDF Congo campaign came off as Museveni's war. And very often there are no heroes in personal wars.
