What do you call the people who would send a young girl (reported to be around 10 years old) strapped with bombs to be exploded in a market with around 20 other victims? Monsters. Between this incident and the recent massacre by the Boko Haram (a violent Islamist militia that has been terrorizing parts of Northern Nigeria as well as Mali & Niger) of some 2000 people in the town of Baga there will understandably be people that will call for US aid and intervention to help the Nigerian government combat the Boko Haram. The sad fact remains that the corruption within the Nigerian government for decades has led a nation that should easily be able to provide for its own self defense through its large revenues from its oil extraction has instead allowed these revenues to be funneled to a few elites there as well as to multi-national corporations and global banks. There also is a problem of both ethnic (Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, Ijaw, Itsekir, and Ogoni tribes along with numerous others) and religious (predominantly Muslim North vs. Christian and African native faiths in the South) divisions causing tensions in a nation created out of arbitrary colonial borders, that also learned its original lessons in corruption from this extracting colonial government. So - just sending more money (or arms) into the hands of the Nigerian government does not necessarily go towards solving their problems - and I do not believe that Americans should ever be forced to give up some of their earnings to other nations - but that instead those who wish to contribute to other nations defenses should voluntarily buy the bonds of these nations treasuries and/or contribute to humanitarian charities providing services there. There might be those that would call for American soldiers to be sent there to combat this problem as well. While I agree that all innocent life around the world deserves protection from violence I still disagree that American soldiers who generally enlisted solely to protect the security of the USAs citizens and sovereign territory (and not to act as world police for the endless list of violence occurring all over our globe at all points in time) should ever be forced to risk life and limb for the security of other nations (except in the rare cases to help to prevent what would truly be genocides, or possibly in rarer exceptions to help protect the sovereignty of peaceful nations from violent authoritarian aggressors). Instead in cases such as this Id suggest we took another look at a now overlooked clause in the US Constitution - for Letters of Marque and Reprisal - where individuals (both from within our military and without) could volunteer to combat forces such as Boko Haram at their own expense (or via funds rasied privately towards this purpose) - and be authorized by Congress to do so within strictly proscribed guidelines. - Steve B. aljazeera/news/africa/2015/01/deadly-suicide-bombing-hits-nigerian-city-2015110141844929488.html
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 19:54:35 +0000
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