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Kidnapped Nigerian Girls

cpwill said:
Well, to be fair, it's not our fault. Some idiot wrote into our founding documents that all men are created equal with certain inalienable rights or some kind of nuttery like that, and we've periodically felt obliged to back that up ever since.
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Yes, I realize that. It's in our blood, though. We are a nation of cowboys, who come from movers, shakers, and pioneers. We just can't stand to leave anything, or anyone, alone. :lol:
 
ChrisL said:
Well I have to disagree. I think that pressure on these governments might do some good. It is a motivation for them to do SOMETHING instead of nothing at least.
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Well maybe the first lady (in a country where women get little respect anyway) and celebrities might concern the Nigerian government but I'd say immediately cutting off half of their foreign aid ($614.7 million) would have a better effect. It seems to me that foreign aid, and the granting thereof, is an underutilized tool.
 
cpwill said:
You mean like an SF team?
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Green Berets, Seals, Rangers, Force Recon, airborne units and select infantry units qualify to perform this mission with the proper intel, ROE and support.
 
Grant said:
Well maybe the first lady (in a country where women get little respect anyway) and celebrities might concern the Nigerian government but I'd say immediately cutting off half of their foreign aid ($614.7 million) would have a better effect. It seems to me that foreign aid, and the granting thereof, is an underutilized tool.
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I would agree. That money is supposed to go to the people anyway, and we all know it doesn't. I am really sick and tired of giving so-called "aid" to these governments. We are NOT going to buy friendship.

I'm just so glad that I don't have to live in one of these armpits of the world. :roll:
 
ChrisL said:
I don't know about that. I've read that these guys are pretty bad.

IRIN Africa | Timeline of Boko Haram attacks and related violence | Nigeria | Economy | Governance | Refugees/IDPs | Security | Urban Risk
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No doubt these are evil bastards, but they are everywhere. Right now they are just getting more publicity because it's the horror of having young girls captured and taken away to some remote hideout. When they burned 27 schoolboys alive last month it went unnoticed as just another Islamic terrorist attack.
 
Grant said:
No doubt these are evil bastards, but they are everywhere. Right now they are just getting more publicity because it's the horror of having young girls captured and taken away to some remote hideout. When they burned 27 schoolboys alive last month it went unnoticed as just another Islamic terrorist attack.
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Awful! I never even heard that story. Do you have a link?
 
Mosby said:
I guarantee you there is a few wild-eyed guinea gunmen, that aren't all that bright, holding AK's on those girls at all times with orders to kill when our boys arrive.

We cannot snipe 'em all.
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:shrug: an effective concurrent rescue op of all 250+ at this point isn't realistic, agreed. Small groups we probably could snipe them all, which many of the girls are (reportedly) fortunately broken into.

As for "hunter killer" teams, I don't know. We could probably employ a CT effort to take out BH leadership if we wanted to (and we'd probably want to target related Ansaru personnel while we were at it), but hunter killer teams aren't going to be effective at locating and extracting the girls. Sad to say, if that's your priority, purchase/trade is probably your best bet. The problem being that that means you have just handed a nutjob a winning tactic. Doing that as a precursor to a joint project with the French in standing up decent Cameroonian / Nigerien / Chad CT capabilities in the Chad Lake region might be a good project, but would require the will to deploy and maintain valuable and vulnerable resources. An FID mission to support the 7th Division would mean the same, and would additionally potentially put an American twist on any human rights abuses they committed.

There are more IDP's from the Syrian conflict now than (I think) any other post-WWII conflict (maybe the Chinese civil war?). 250 School girls is a tragedy, and an evil act committed by a group that deserves to have very armed men smashing down their doors, but I don't see the West committing the resources necessary for an effort that only became popular because there was nothing new to talk about on the Malaysia Flight story.
 
cpwill said:
Worse described.... how? Qualitatively? Quantitatively? Using what metric?
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I was using Hillary's metric.
....yeah... not sure that's an argument against their designation so much as it is against the State Department....
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Yep! But what does it matter if they make the list or not if nothing is going to be done about them?
 
ChrisL said:
Awful! I never even heard that story. Do you have a link?
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The hourslong assault on Gamboru Ngala that left at least 150 people dead, some of whom were burned alive, is the latest in a series of brazen attacks and abductions by Boko Haram, raising concern about whether the Nigerian government can retake control of the region from the entrenched terror group.


You gotta give them this: plenty of people, even evil people, might have been cowed by suddenly attracting the attention and potentially the military of the worlds' remaining superpower. Boko Haram literally gives zero f---s.
 
cpwill said:
:shrug: an effective concurrent rescue op of all 250+ at this point isn't realistic, agreed. Small groups we probably could snipe them all, which many of the girls are (reportedly) fortunately broken into.

As for "hunter killer" teams, I don't know. We could probably employ a CT effort to take out BH leadership if we wanted to (and we'd probably want to target related Ansaru personnel while we were at it), but hunter killer teams aren't going to be effective at locating and extracting the girls. Sad to say, if that's your priority, purchase/trade is probably your best bet. The problem being that that means you have just handed a nutjob a winning tactic. Doing that as a precursor to a joint project with the French in standing up decent Cameroonian / Nigerien / Chad CT capabilities in the Chad Lake region might be a good project, but would require the will to deploy and maintain valuable and vulnerable resources. An FID mission to support the 7th Division would mean the same, and would additionally potentially put an American twist on any human rights abuses they committed.

There are more IDP's from the Syrian conflict now than (I think) any other post-WWII conflict (maybe the Chinese civil war?). 250 School girls is a tragedy, and an evil act committed by a group that deserves to have very armed men smashing down their doors, but I don't see the West committing the resources necessary for an effort that only became popular because there was nothing new to talk about on the Malaysia Flight story.
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You really think that? I think there are plenty of people who care and who are just so sick and tired of things like this happening! Also, we can't allow these groups to become TOO powerful.
 
apdst said:
Green Berets, Seals, Rangers, Force Recon, airborne units and select infantry units qualify to perform this mission with the proper intel, ROE and support.
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That's not hunter killer teams. That's full echelons with support units and the logistical chain necessary to maintain a presence. If there is anything we've learned about the CI fight in the last decade, it's that it is manpower intensive.
 
Grant said:
It was actually 29. 29 Boys Killed as Boko Haram Attacks Boarding School in Nigeria - NBC News

Boko Haram Steps Up Its War on Kids - The Daily Beast

Perhaps the media has become too squeamish to report this stuff, I don't know, but there should be something the world can do. And the burden to answer the call should not be taken ony by the Americans. Where is the UN in all of this? Or Europe?
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The UN is useless, and Europe doesn't want to hurt anyone's widdle feewings.
 
lizzie said:
Yes, I realize that. It's in our blood, though. We are a nation of cowboys, who come from movers, shakers, and pioneers. We just can't stand to leave anything, or anyone, alone. :lol:
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The world is better off for it. Notice, we don't see the 'murica haters bragging abou what THEIR country is going to do.
 
ChrisL said:
You really think that?
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The girls were kidnapped on April 14. There was a car bombing in the capital city the same day, and then a week later. After.... two weeks and some change, people started noticing because the news ran it, because there was nothing else happening. It was three weeks before we started seeing the twitterverse caring, and then the Administration was suddenly Up In Arms Over The Horror Of It All.

I think there are plenty of people who care and who are just so sick and tired of things like this happening! Also, we can't allow these groups to become TOO powerful.
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No doubt. And Boko Haram presents a very real threat to the Nigerian government, which is the largest economy in Africa. But I don't think people are sick and tired of things like this happening. I think they are sick and tired of seeing it on the news, and responding to that. Nobody cared on April 16th or 18th. If people were honestly willing to deploy our forces out of a responsibility to protect, we would have been involved in Syria.
 
ChrisL said:
The UN is useless, and Europe doesn't want to hurt anyone's widdle feewings.
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Actually, for all that I have given them crap, and for all that they have had some painful missteps, and for all that they still heavily limit the risks they take, France has stepped up to the plate a bit in Western and Central Africa. I have to at least give them props for that.
 
cpwill said:
The girls were kidnapped on April 14. There was a car bombing in the capital city the same day, and then a week later. After.... two weeks and some change, people started noticing because the news ran it, because there was nothing else happening. It was three weeks before we started seeing the twitterverse caring, and then the Administration was suddenly Up In Arms Over The Horror Of It All.



No doubt. And Boko Haram presents a very real threat to the Nigerian government, which is the largest economy in Africa. But I don't think people are sick and tired of things like this happening. I think they are sick and tired of seeing it on the news, and responding to that. Nobody cared on April 16th or 18th. If people were honestly willing to deploy our forces out of a responsibility to protect, we would have been involved in Syria.
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I disagree. Syria was another thing completely. We STILL have to question who are the good guys and who are the bad guys over there. In this situation, we KNOW who the bad guys are.
 
ChrisL said:
I know I saw another thread about this, but it is full of partisan bickering. I was hoping to start a thread that is about the Nigerian girls and the things that are being done to rescue them.

I think it's just terrible what happened here, and SOME of the girls are missing from the video. I wonder if they're still alive. Also, I can't imagine how frustrated their parents and loved ones must feel right about now. I hear that it's quite a large area where they could be keeping these girls, so the government would naturally have problems pinpointing their location. However, I don't think there is ANY excuse for allowing these types of groups to become SO powerful to begin with, and THAT is the part that really pisses me off!

Scared but alive: Video purports to show abducted Nigerian girls - CNN.com
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Nigeria is an independent nation of over 168 million (mosly Muslim) people and certainly can find the will to stop these few folks from committing murder, kidnapping and mayhem. The US cannot randomly pick and choose when to play world policeman based on Twitter volume. This call for US intervention sets a dangerous precedent, especially while the Nigerian gov't seems quite content to negotiate with this band of thugs that recently murdered other school children.

Boko Haram also murder boys. Where's the

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/mi...ideo-bring-nigerian-negotiators-table-n103211
 
Grant said:
It was actually 29. 29 Boys Killed as Boko Haram Attacks Boarding School in Nigeria - NBC News

Boko Haram Steps Up Its War on Kids - The Daily Beast

Perhaps the media has become too squeamish to report this stuff, I don't know, but there should be something the world can do. And the burden to answer the call should not be taken only by the Americans. Where is the UN in all of this? Or Europe?
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:lol: they are going to write Boko Haram a letter telling them how angry they are. And if Boko Haram doesn't change their ways, they are going to write them another letter. That will perhaps even include exclamation points!
 
cpwill said:
That's not hunter killer teams. That's full echelons with support units and the logistical chain necessary to maintain a presence. If there is anything we've learned about the CI fight in the last decade, it's that it is manpower intensive.
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Hunter/killer teams don't require beans, bullets and supporting fires?
 
apdst said:
Hunter/killer teams don't require beans, bullets and supporting fires?
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Well that's my point. We're not talking about a deployment of a few five man teams. We're talking about a significant commitment.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Nigeria is an independent nation of over 168 million (mosly Muslim) people and certainly can find the will to stop these few folks from committing murder, kidnapping and mayhem. The US cannot randomly pick and choose when to play world policeman based on Twitter volume. This call for US intervention sets a dangerous precedent, especially while the Nigerian gov't seems quite content to negotiate with this band of thugs that recently murdered other school children.

Boko Haram also murder boys. Where's the
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Yes, but we know the dangers of ignoring a potential threat. Terrorists like to spread their crazy ideologies. Obviously the Nigerian government is corrupt and incompetent. They are JUST as guilty for these atrocities because they ALLOW them to happen and turn a blind eye. The ONLY reason why they are paying attention to this is because they are getting international pressure, and I don't see that as a bad thing at all.

Boko Haram formed amid Nigerian government corruption - World - CBC News
 
cpwill said:
:lol: they are going to write Boko Haram a letter telling them how angry they are. And if Boko Haram doesn't change their ways, they are going to write them another letter. That will perhaps even include exclamation points!
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Oh, Michelle hashtagges it, with a pout-lip pic. It's all good!
 
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