Karl Wycoff, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa, has been telling reporters things are going swimmingly in the latest American war you've never heard about. At least one hundred special forces troops are staging out of bases in four African nations - Uganda, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo - in operations against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of Uganda. Wycroft says with US help that the four nations "continue to make some progress in reducing the LRA's numbers and keeping them from regrouping."

So why do I hear a far-off voice that sounds something like Jeff Goldbum's character from Jurassic Park?

Oh, this:

Attempts to negotiate peace failed in 2008 after Kony refused to sign a deal, and past efforts to defeat them militarily have tended to result in brutal retaliation taken out against local villages.

Obama's decision to send U.S. forces to join the fight marked a significant esclation of pressure on LRA, known for hacking body parts off victims and the abduction of young boys to fight and young girls for use as sex slaves.

It also thrust the United States into an expanded role in conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, putting U.S. troops in the field to support local forces in direct combat with insurgents.

While the U.S. mission has drawn wide support in Congress, which passed a law requiring the United States to do more to fight the LRA, some analysts are skeptical that the new U.S. push will succeed where others have failed.

They have also voiced concern that the United States, by joining up with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, is strengthening the hand of an African leader increasingly accused of human rights abuses and political oppression at home.

"This is a regime that is basically slowly collapsing from within," said Joel Barkan, a Uganda expert and senior associate in the Africa program at CSIS.

"In terms of a long-term bet in respect to providing peace and security in Uganda, a country that held out such promise for a while, those days are over."

It's meant to be a mission lasting just a few months, not an open-ended committment. That's how it always starts...