This is the pro argument on Invisible Children.  To read the pro argument, click here.

A few weeks ago, if someone mentioned Invisible Children (IC), most people would have no idea what that was. No one knew what it was or what it did until the video KONY 2012. For those who haven’t seen the video or know what IC is, here is some of its history as well as proof of IC’s legitimacy as a charity.

The  war started in 1986 when Yoweri Museveni became president. Alice Lakwena disliked him and started an opposition movement called the Holy Spirit Movement, which gained allies and recruited followers with rebal military forces. When Alice Lakwena was exiled, Joseph Kony took her place and the rebel group then became known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Kony was not able to keep the support that Lakwena did, so he began to steal food and abduct children for his army.  He made children kill their families as girls became sex slaves for his officers. The LRA has taken more than 30,000 children in northern Uganda.

Although it was terrible, the LRA wanted to have peace negotiations in what is now South Sudan, which took over two years. Kony sent a delegate on his own behalf, but when the peace treaty was ready to be signed, he disappeared five times. Kony used the treaties as  cover to give him an opportunity to abduct more children. During this time of peace negotiations, the LRA was given food, clothing, and medicine.

In December 2008, some African countries as well as intelligence from the U.S. launched an attack on Kony, but failed when Kony heard of it and escaped.  Later, the LRA created what is known as the Christmas massacres. They killed 321 people and abducted 250 children, and outside world did not even know of these attacks until three months later.

This is where KONY 2012 fits into the situation as Invisible Children decided the best way to stop this war was through knowledge.

IC has been working for nine years to stop Kony and finish Africa’s longest armed conflict. U.S. military advisors are in central Africa trying to stop Kony and destroy the LRA. The U.S. is only remaining in Africa for one more year, and then they are leaving Kony to wreak havoc until he dies.

Currently, Joseph Kony is on the world’s top 10 most wanted criminals. The IC’s KONY 2012 campaign is designed not to celebrate him, but to raise awareness for his arrest.

The KONY 2012 video spread like wildfire through social media on Wednesday, March 7, 2012, raising national awareness.  On April 20, 2012, Invisible Children is asking people to put up posters around the county to raise even more awareness. IC’s mission is bigger than saving each individual child.  It’s about saving the future children of Africa.

Megan Foard is a Multimedia Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.