I guess we can expect a leftist anti-war backlash soon then.
Why?
Obama using the CIA to give info to a regime with questionable human rights record. Obama sending troops to kill Muslim boogeymen. I mean, I'm all for it personally but that's what I imagine people are going to start saying.
Shouldn't good leftists also hate the idea of theocratic fundamentalists victimizing young girls and depriving them of the right to a secular education?
Obviously Boko Haram are disgusting reactionaries, but the fact that Obama is sending ground troops to fight Islamists in an oil-rich country with a spotty human rights record and a government clearly unable (or more likely, unwilling) to deal with the terrorists on their own leads one to many questions.
Are you able to comment on any issue without somehow mentioning how horrible Obama is?
Not when Obama is invading an oil-rich nation under the pretext of fighting Islamist terrorists.
Seriously, if you're going to criticise this it undermines legitimate criticisms of Obama's administrations actions.
Obama, with the permission of the Nigerian President, is going to send in a handful of special forces. That's not an invasion - it barely counts as a skirmish.
Seriously, why wouldn't the world hegemonic power help out in a case like this? This is absolutely, certainly, not in any way about oil. The US gets tons of oil from Nigeria already, and Boko Harem are in no position to overpower the Nigerian government.
This is about all soft power. The US wants to regain the image they held for so long as "good guys", protectors of underdogs. If the US marches in and saves the girls, their will be immense goodwill from many countries who have grown cynical of Obama. In turn that goodwill means the US has more room to pivot against China and Russia.
And the best thing (from a moral and PR point of view) is that this issue is pretty much black vs. white. Scary terorist group with no support vs. 200 innocent schoolgirls. Rescuing them is a win-win situation.
