Nigeria - A Case Where Human Interests Overtake Strategic Interests

In Abuja, a Nigerian government official said "all options are open" in efforts to rescue almost 300 abducted schoolgirls from their captors, as US reconnaissance aircraft started flying over the country in a search effort. American defense spokesmen say the US is using MC-12 surveillance aircraft, based in Niger, to conduct missions in Nigeria. In addition to the turboprop model which has seen heavy use in Afghanistan, US officials are also considering the use of drones. At this point, the surveillance missions are not continuous. Unnamed defense sources say that General David Rodriguez, head of US Africa Command, was in Abuja on Tuesday, meeting with leaders at the US Embassy. ~~~~~ Boko Haram, the militant group that kidnapped the girls a month ago from a school in Borno state, released a video Monday purporting to show some of the girls. Boko Haram's leader, who appears separately from the girls in the video, says : "I swear to almighty Allah, you will not see them again until you release our brothers that you have captured." He has previously threatened to sell the girls into slavery. The video shows many of the captive girls dressed in Moslem garb reciting passages from the Koran. In the video, Abubakar Shekau, leader of the radical Islamist group, says the girls will be held and continue to be forcibly converted to Islam until jailed members of his group are freed by the Nigerian government. Hussein Monguno, of the civic group called the Borno Yobe People's Forum, said representatives of the families of the missing girls had been invited to the Borno governor's residence in Abuja to view the Boko Haram video. The families viewed the video as a group on Tuesday, and 54 of the girls in the video were identified. The government is likely to decide on the next course of action now that some families have "verified" that their children appear in the video, Monguno said by phone from the Borno capital. Nigeria's government initially suggested that it would not negotiate with Boko Haram, but it appears that position may be stepped back. Mike Omeri, the director of the government's information agency, said the government will "use whatever kind of action" it takes to free the girls. He also warned that a military operation, with foreign help, was possible, with military and intelligence experts from other parts of the world. "So these are part of the options that are available to us and many more." The mass kidnappings - and the government's allegedly slow response - have sparked outrage at home and abroad. Last week critics organized a mass protest in Abuja to force the government to do more to find the missing girls and to stop attacks by Boko Haram. Nigerian media have reported that President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday asked the National Assembly to extend for six months the state of emergency in Borno and two other northeastern states where Boko Haram is active. The emergency was imposed May 14, 2013, and extended last December. ~~~~~ Britain and the US are now actively helping Nigeria's government to rescue the missing girls. Britain, which has sent security experts to Nigeria, said its goal is to offer "longer-term counter-terrorism solutions to prevent such attacks in the future and defeat Boko Haram." America is sharing aerial surveillance imagery with the Nigerian government and is flying manned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft over Nigeria with the Nigerian government's permission, a senior US official told the Associated Press on Monday. And, members of a Nigerian delegation currently in Israel have told Israeli TV that their government has accepted the offer of Israeli aid, and confirmed that Israeli counter-terrorism experts were already en route to the West African nation. Some reports say that Israeli security forces have already arrived in Nigeria to aid in the search for the young Christian girls abducted by Boko Haram. When the government of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan turned to the international community for help, Israel was quick to respond : “Israel expresses deep shock at the crime against the girls,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement, “We are ready to help in finding the girls and fighting the cruel terrorism inflicted on you.” An Israeli military official who just returned from Nigeria told a popular Israeli Internet news site, Buzzfeed, that “in the wake of this crisis, Israel increased its assistance and we have been providing support in any manner possible," including gathering intelligence and guiding Nigerian forces on how to best tackle the Boko Haram threat. Some Israeli radio commentators also suggested that Israeli special forces could be taking part in reconnaissance and combat operations. Boko Haram has killed more than 1,500 people this year in a campaign of bombings, massacres and kidnappings. ~~~~~ Dear readers, we can draw three very importanr lessons from the Nigerian kidnappings of Christian schoolgirls by islamist terrorists in the poorest, most remote areas of Nigeria, areas that have been terrorized for years by Boko Haram. First, these jihadist islamists do not try to take power positions in Paris or New York. They seek out remote areas where people are not protected by whatever central government exists. They prey on the poor, the uneducated, the defenseless, and often the Christians. And they are merciless - they terrorize by beheading, machete killings, kidnappings, burning villagers huddled in churches and mosques for refuge. Second, their relative freedom of movement reflects the marginal capability of each country's central authority - consider northwest Afghanistan, rural Pakistan, the north of Syria devastated by civil war, Mali, Libya and now, Nigeria. The jihadist islamists' choice of target region is predictable and could be mapped out rather easily. Third, the often made argument that American ground troops will not be sent to Nigeria because the strategic interests of America are not at risk in Nigeria is completely wrong-headed. America's strategic interests reach out to every group of human beings being treated as sub-human pawns. Whether in Nigeria or North Korea or Ukraine, America is not so much a place as it is an ideal. The ideal that human beings count - that they deserve protection and peace - that their lives and the lives of their children matter. Nigeria does not need American troops on the ground for ten years. It needs troops - special forces - to rescue 274 schoolgirls. Israel and Britain and France understand this. Americans understand it, too. It is one of those moments when "strategic interests" means "human interests." There are times like that. If you are not convinced, watch the CNN interview with the mother of one of the kidnapped girls. She said that the Nigerian government has done its best but nothing has happened. "But now they are talking to America and maybe something will happen." The Shining City on the Hill exists and no security expert's cost-benefit analysis to the contrary can change that.