The Second Coming of Joseph Kony

All this makes Kony more than a moral menace; he is a regional threat. The government of Sudan -- the author of the Darfur genocide -- has historical ties to the LRA, which Khartoum once used as a proxy to fight Uganda's government. According to some reports, those contacts between the Sudanese regime and the LRA have now resumed. After last month's unsuccessful attack of Darfur rebels on Sudan's capital, Khartoum, the regime may again be looking for a proxy to engage its enemies -- this time in Darfur or neighboring Chad. In this part of Africa, there is a market for useful thugs -- and Kony is a particularly effective one.

What should be done?

First, the U.S. State Department needs to finally put Kony on its terrorism list. He deserves that designation by any definition -- including the narrow standard of threatening the lives of Americans in the past. This designation would give the president more latitude in tracking Kony's threat, and eventually dealing with it. The executive decision to define Kony as a terrorist has already been made, but it has been held up by State Department bureaucracy.

Second, American defense and intelligence officials will need to be tasked with keeping close tabs on Kony's whereabouts. If he begins to move north to interfere in Sudan or returns to the killing fields of northern Uganda, America needs to know.

Third, the time has arrived for those countries with stakes in the region -- Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic, Britain, France and America -- to deal with Kony himself. A report by ENOUGH, a project of the International Crisis Group and the Center for American Progress, calls for a "military strategy to apprehend Kony and disband the rest of the LRA." It is overdue.

We are seeing -- surrounded by an army of children and trailing clouds of death -- the second coming of Joseph Kony. If this is not a cause for horror -- and a justified cause for international action -- it is difficult to imagine what would be.