According to CNN (although it's only one of many sources, and one of several numbers) there are 276 young Nigerian women still missing after a mass kidnapping the night of April 14th, 2014. Reading through the plethora of information available on the internet, these girls are potential shining stars for Nigeria's future. In a nation where only 71% of boys get high school educations, it's no surprise that the number of girls dips even lower at 57%. These girls, many who had been within weeks of graduating, represent not only their own achievement in completing an education, but the hopes and dreams of families who were willing to work hard to educate their daughters. They are a generation of educated women who represent a change in the way women are raised. They are Nigeria's future. Their families today are facing armed militia in the jungles of Nigeria as they continue to search for their girls, and possible political repercussions as they protest their government's inaction.
As rumors abound that these young women will be sold for the US equivalent of 12 dollars, as brides or slaves, a world that has largely ignored Nigeria, Boko Harem, and the political unrest in Central Africa for the last decade and a half if not longer, suddenly finds itself focusing intently on Africa's most populous nation--Nigeria, in what may indeed be a watershed moment for its government, president and splinter groups. For a moment, watching youtube videos of desperate family members and reading story after story of how long these young women have been held, many Americans and indeed US and UN supporters across the globe, are calling for action. So much so that Nigeria's president extended an invitation to the US military to send a team of specially trained experts to help locate the missing schoolgirls. Someone to come to the rescue.
For one shining moment it seems that there might just be some good that the US military can do without all those pesky complications. This might be the ONE instance in which our grandiose military might could save the day without us having to think through any messy consequences or ultierer motives.
But like all shining moments, this one fades.
Unplanned, and unanticipated, this global cry for justice provides a chance for the US military, already deeply involved in Africa, to hedge in a little deeper. To have a legitimate reason to be a little closer to Nigeria's oil supply. To spread tendrils grasping for information and support into a new place, and to do it without much criticism. Indeed, to do it with global support. Because let's not forget, the US military has long been interested in Africa, and their main mission and goal is to support US interests abroad. And by US interests, I don't mean the interests of the hundreds of millions of Americans, unable to think of any better way to help, tweeting #BringBackOurGirls.
I mean the interests of Halibruton and Walmart and ExxonMobil. US Africa Command, created in 2006, is an arm of the US military dedicated to ensuring a US presence in the development of African nations, and as that implies in all parts of the world, continued US military and economic dominance. Made up, according to wikipedia of a minimum 2,000 dedicated "key personnel" US Africa Command is hardly an afterthought in US long term planning, and with a history in Africa that goes back to the Civil Rights movement at home, we know there are corporations and congresspeople with their eye on how this could all play out.
We need to remember that Nigeria, a nation that was originally essentially carved out by Colonial interests with no respect to religious or ethnic boundaries or diversity, has been struggling to find it's footing since the Western world walked away. Through this process, Nigeria suffered a massive civil war less than 50 years ago. A civil war where the world decided not to watch or know as up to one million people died, many from starvation.
We also have to remember the US using women's rights to further justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq. To propping up a puppet government in Iran after topping a democratically elected leader in the early 1950's. We are happy to use "women's right" and "women's suffering" to justify military might, and happy to ignore those issues when it's our allies perpetrating these alleged injustices (see Saudi Arabia).
Most importantly of all we need to remember (particularly those of us who are US citizens) that the United States of America is (as Noam Chomsky says) a global hegemon, and our government can easily be seen as more an oligarchy than a republic or a democracy. We have long since lost the privilege of being able to send in military forces, no matter how small or few, or how well trained and effective they might be, without considering the longterm global implications of our actions. Being the hegemon does not endow us with a moral obligation to police the world. Rather it demands we recognize the extent to which our power can encompass and warp even the most noble of goals.
Yes. There are over 200 girls missing.
Yes. Something MUST be done for these girls, their families and the girls and families pursuing education across western Africa.
Is US military involvement sending in a "white knight" (figuratively and literally) really the best solution that the world has--I personally don't think so, no matter how emotionally (and politically) rewarding it would be for me as an American to cheer the troops that brought those girls home, and to bubble with pride about what we, the fucking United States of America, can accomplish. Because we can accomplish a lot. Particularly when it involves guns blazing, and planes flying.
But however good it would be for the US of A to play the hero, it won't solve this problem.
Boko Harem has been an ongoing issue for Nigeria for almost 20 years. Hundreds have died, tens of thousands have been impacted, and all that has changed this last week, is that the world finally cares.
These 200 girls deserve to be rescued, but they are not the first victims of this conflict and they sadly probably won't be the last, and their rescue should not come at the cost of Nigeria becoming a foothold for US military power in Africa, or a government propped up a little bit more by US aims for US economic interests.
The list of nations who have succombed to that fate goes on and on and on. Iran, Vietnam, Guatemala, El Salvador, Niceragua, Argentina, Peru, Syria, Indonesia, Ghana, Turkey, Venezuela, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan and on and on and on. Sometimes we waged outright war, sometimes we slipped in as "support" sometimes we just sent our CIA to topple governments and undermine democratically elected presidents. However we did it, we altered the course of history forever in each case, and in each case it wasn't the Guatemala's or Zaire's of the world who benefited. It was Dole Bananas, and Shell Oils.
Perchance we should step in, send soldiers and guns and more. Rescue these girls in a blaze of American glory. Because, to be fair. We can. Our military machine is something to be proud of. Well trained, well equipped and damn good at their jobs. But perchance we shouldn’t, because of exactly that. Perchance we should find a way for this effort to be a little more UN and a little less US, a little more Nigeria and a little less Western Powers.
Either way, there are already US military members on the ground in Nigeria today. They will, whatever else, work towards rescueing 270 some odd girls, who truly and completely deserve their futures back. However, this is something we should watch with a careful eye and critical lens, because sometimes saving the day isn’t enough, if in doing so you forget the potential future consequences of doing something as dangerous as inviting the US military in to stay.
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