Jason Russell was a new grad of University of Southern California with a film degree and a passion to find a strong story.  He found that story in Africa when he also found himself among those being terrorized by the violent acts of Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army.

After nine years of documenting the atrocities he and his colleagues saw and the victims they met- young children forced into being soldiers or sex slaves- their work swept social media in days.  The video has attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and the attention of some prominent people, including those in Uganda.

"All this hoopla about Kony and his murderous activities is good in a sense that it helps inform those who didn't know the monster that Kony is. But of course, this is too late," Uganda's defence ministry spokesman Felix Kulayigye told Reuters.

"It might take long but we'll catch Kony, dead or alive. How many years did it take to end the conflict in Northern Ireland? So our hunt for Kony can take long but it will end one day," he said.

But as The Globe reported, ridding Uganda of Joseph Kony may not completely solve the problem:

• By focusing so much on Mr. Kony, the campaign suggests that capturing him will end the atrocities, even restore the lives of those who have suffered. But as the assassination of Osama bin Laden has shown, silencing one man doesn’t silence the movement.

• We recently spent three months in northern Uganda, where we spoke to hundreds of people who lost relatives and livelihoods in the war. Although many said they wanted “justice,” the meaning of justice and who should be brought to justice were divisive issues.  While many support putting Mr. Kony and others accused of war crimes on trial, others would prefer to forgive them, as long as they apologized sincerely for what they did and accepted accountability for their actions.

According to the State Department, "since 2008 alone, the LRA has killed more than 2,400 people and abducted more than 3,400. The United Nations estimates that over 380,000 people are displaced across the region because of LRA activity."

Despite the surge of attention the "Kony 2012" video has attracted, the Lord's Resistance Army has been on the U.S.'s radar since 2008.  The U.S. has contributed more than $40 million to aid regional efforts in overtaking Joseph Kony and President Obama sent 100 U.S. military advisers in October.

Though the response to the video has been largely supportive, some critics have also been voicing their concerns about how Russell's San Diego-based nonprofit "Invisible Children, Inc." has been spending donation money.

According to CBS News:

• The organization spent $8.9 million, of which just $3.3 million went to programs in central Africa. Of the remainder, another $2.3 million went to marketing; $1.4 million on management and general expenses; $700,000 on media; and $850,000 on "awareness products" (clothing, DVDs, etc.).

• Zach Barrows of Invisible Children told CBS News, "We've never pretended all the money goes to the ground, because we don't believe that's the best use. The best use is spreading the word and then doing the highest-impact programs possible on the ground."

The organization said its goal for the video was to get 500,000 views in the year 2013. As of Friday morning, there have been 50 million.