U.S. To Send Team To Nigeria In Response To Girls' Kidnapping

[big_dog]

Source: Associated Press/The Huffington Post- 1 hour ago

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the U.S. will do everything it can to help Nigeria find nearly 300 teenage girls who have been missing since they were abducted from school three weeks ago by an Islamist extremist group that has threatened to sell them.
Finding the girls is the immediate priority, Obama said, and dealing with the Boko Haram group is a close second.

"In the short term our goal is obviously is to help the international community, and the Nigerian government, as a team to do everything we can to recover these young ladies," Obama said in an interview with Al Roker of NBC's "Today" program. "But we're also going to have to deal with the broader problem of organizations like this that ... can cause such havoc in people's day-to-day lives."

Obama said the Nigerian government has accepted technical assistance from U.S. military and law enforcement officials. "We're going to do everything we can to provide assistance to them," the president said. Obama said the April 15 abduction, which has ignited international outrage and mounting demands for Nigeria to do more to find and free the girls before they are harmed, is a "terrible situation."

"Boko Haram, this terrorist organization that's been operating in Nigeria, has been killing people and innocent civilians for a very long time," Obama said, adding that the group long has been identified as one of the worst local or regional terrorist organizations in the world. "I can only imagine what the parents are going through," added Obama, a father of two daughters ages 15 and 12.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/06/us-team-nigeria-kidnapping_n_5274484.html

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Boko Harem, meet your new best friends Seal Team Six!

[freshwest]

1. I don't know much about the activities of the Seals, other than news. But if they do this, ok by me.

It would lighten up the harsh opinions some people have. I don't approve of Americans forcing other nations to do what some here think is the right thing to do, that is, Team America or World Police.

But this isn't a naiton, it's a rogue gang that is of no use to anyone. For some reason, the Nigerian government doesn't seem to have any power to save these girls. This is as bad as the Libertarian Paradises like Somalia, etc. At this point, I am for whatever works to save these girls from the guys who took them away.

I don't see that Obama is saying as calling for the kind of operation that the Seals would do, as their feats appear to be the stuff of legend and open to dispute by some.

If so, go and get them. I'm iired of seeing half the human race treated like livestock to be used and abused. It's a plague on this planet.

FWIW.

[okaawhatever]

2. Nigeria is at a loss to help because the terrorists have likely taken them into the forest or

mountains of Cameroon. Their military and police force don't do that sort of tracking, nor do they have the equipment for it. From what I read the people we are sending are experts at the tracking of groups like this. Hopefully between those with experience and the equipment we can make a difference.

[Ex Lurker]

4. From what I've been reading, Boko Haram moves about at will

and in the open. The people are scared of them, but they're also scared of the Nigerian government, which makes it tricky. If we go in there and are seen to be aligned with the regime, we won't get much cooperation, either.

This is a perfect scenario for culturally-aware Special Forces teams to go in there, live among the indigenous population, gain their trust, and raise local self-defense forces. The classic SF mission and what they were originally created for.

[freshwest]

5. Is that what SF really does? Are they on the 'right' side of things, really helping? Just the

words Special Forces are regarded as sinister by some people. I'm not military, but have known people that are familiar.

I could see them as getting bashed by many for doing anything. I don't want to pick and choose among these things... That is what the CinC is for and it's no wonder Obama has grey hair, so dangerous and can go wrong.

I've been reading about this Boko Harum group over there since last year and they are a galloping crime against humanity and the conscience.

Even if one has different opinion on individualism and human rights, what they have done is beyond the pale, IMHO.

[big_dog]

7. we need to find 300 kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria and their gov't cannot do it alone

I think the best thing is for Boko Harem to consider their next move very carefully

[Ex Lurker]

9. There are a number of American SoF outfits

All have similar training and skills, but focus on slightly different tasks. The core tasks of US Army Special Forces include Unconventional Warfare and Foreign Internal Defense (two sides of the same coin.) Every operator knows at least one foreign language and has a variety of skills, including medical, communications, and construction. You might find them patrolling against insurgents, or you might find them running medical clinics and building schools, sometimes on the same mission. The idea is to teach the local people to defend themselves.

That's not all they do. They do a LOT of things, often unrelated to what I've stated above. But it's one of their core missions, they train for it, and this would be right up their alley.

The other side of it is, governments often don't want their people getting too independent. This was an issue in Vietnam. SF had a good working relationship with the Montagnard ethnic minority in the Vietnamese highlands, and built a highly effective fighting force from among them. The Vietnamese central government was wary of the Montagnards having too much autonomy, and threw up roadblocks at every opportunity. I suspect this might happen in a hypothetical Nigerian mission as well.

Counterinsurgency is very complex.

[big_dog]

3. no problems with this at all. Nigerian govt asked us to bring thunder against possible mass genocide

and we will oblige

[freshwest]

6. I think this will get very inolved and take a long time. Obama isn't into bombing, or 'thunder'

Last edited Tue May 6, 2014, 08:35 PM - Edit history (1)

if that's what you mean. I can't see how that will do any good, please explain what you mean here. Don't want to misconstrue your words. Likely means something different to you.

My take on the Seals is they would go in and sneak the girls out. But the number of 300 girls being taken They were seen by a lot of people who couldn't stop them.

I don't think some of those countries have strong enough governments to enforce anything as far as public safety is involved. This is what the Kochs, sovereign citizens ahd the like want to see in America.

Strong man rule, forcing those around them to submit to their demands by force of weaponry without consent or discussion. This is what is going on in Nigeria.

[big_dog]

10. correct, I meant quick, direct/decisive action by 'bringing the thunder'

it seems that we have been behind on this crisis, imo. and glad to see us step to the fore. perhaps we dont even need military conflict if they can find the kids fast

[goldent]

8. We need to be very careful about this

and the extent to which we get involved. We should offer help as part of an international group. We should not send in any military force of any type, or provide weapons of any type.

[Renew Deal]

11. You feel no obligation to counter slave holders and rapists?

[freshwest]

13. We had a civil war over that. I wonder how Nigerians feel about this. I wonder if this is theirs.

The President of the Confederacy said they would seize all blacks in states they took over and place them and their descendants in slavery forever. Including those who'd never been slaves.

Boko Haram sees all these girls as slaves, with no real difference from how than Confederate White Supremacists saw blacks, for their gender is their mark of slavery.

Those same Confederates didn't see any woman as fit to decide on anything, just like some of the philosophers of ancient Greece saw women, the people of conquered nations or POWs as having any right to be free, considering them to be born to be slaves.

This is a terrible thing going on there, it's a page out of history repeated daily in many places in the world. So I guess I should not call it history.

But what is going on in human trafficking is not usually this upfront, it's a state of war and the girls are POWs of the gangs.

I read a report villagers attempted to stop them. They were armed with rocks and shot arrows with bows. They could not stop the Boko Haram criminals.

I don't call them rebels or give them any other glory by giving them another term, this is a crime, and most people know it.

But is it part of civil war?

That being said, I want someone to go in there, get those girls and put down this group. Period. Their ideology belongs buried in the dead past.

[EX500rider]

17. Why you think the "crack" Nigerian troops will do a better job somehow?

[goldent]

18. Has no-one seen what happens when we put American military

into various countries around the world? Come on, you need to only go back a decade or two. Hint: It has not gone well.

It is good to offer aid and assistance, multilaterally. But keep American military personal and weapons out! Must that be the American solution for any problem?

[meti57b]

12. Thank you to Obama and the team he is sending. May they be successful!

[Marrah_G]

14. I only wish we had offered help sooner

I can't imagine the special sort of hell these girls are going through.

[hopemountain]

15. the whole world is watching and bombarding

the nigerian government to do something. finally.
according to news reports today(aljazeera, joyreid's show, npr) the political scene in this country, the military, and the government are all in a twist about what to do because now the lives of the girls and the girls families are being threatened.
in addition i want to thank joy reid for not letting go of this story and for being the first to report accurately that it was slightly more than 300 girls who were kidnapped and that only a handful were able to escape. also, that more girls in other villages have continued to be kidnapped since the story first broke.

[sheshe2]

16. Thank God!

All 20 female senators urged Obama in a letter to pursue severe international sanctions on Boko Haram. A smaller group of mostly male senators urged Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to address the root causes of unrest in his country.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. had been in touch with Nigeria "from day one" of the crisis. But repeated offers of U.S. assistance were ignored until Kerry got on the phone Tuesday with Jonathan amid growing international concern and outrage over the fate of the girls in the weeks since their abduction.

Kerry said Nigeria apparently wanted to pursue its own strategy, but now realizes more needs to be done.

"I think now the complications that have arisen have convinced everybody that there needs to be a greater effort," Kerry said at a State Department news conference. "And it will begin immediately. I mean, literally, immediately."

#bring back our girls