Boko Haram Blowback

blowback

the action of a light automatic weapon in which the expanding gases of the propellant force back the bolt, thus reloading the weapon

 I am oft gung-ho about dictionary.com, but this definition is not quite the context I am seeking. I seek the political context. Blowback, is when the coercive U.S. military, or secret three letter forces pejoratively called the alphabet boys, invade a nation hoping to see their will be done, and it backfires on them in an unexpected fashion.

Immortal Technique, long ago, warned us about the dangers of coffee-shop-revolutionaries. They are the whitewashed tombs of foreign policy. Outwardly they cry for the beautiful ideas; justice, mercy and faith, but on the inside, they are apathetic.* Now, they might be confused for hipsters, but I assure you coffee-shop-revolutionaries can, and oft do, include the mundane status-quo guardians as well. When the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, they cheered or ignored it. Osama Bin Laden's extra-judicial assassination? They had a parade. The extra-judicial assassination of American citizen and Al-Qaeda affiliate Anwar al-Awlaki? Not phased. The extra-judicial assassination, via unmanned drone, of his unaffiliated 16 year old son? Shit happens. In 2012, they wanted to play Where's Kony?** This year, along with the FLOTUS*** they demanded that we "BRING BACK OUR GIRLS!"

I am more recently African, and according to 23andme a lot more African, than many of the coffee-shop-revolutionaries wailing in the public domain of social media. This does not mean that I must be more concerned, but I am concerned, and empathy is aided by closeness. I believe that on some level, coffee-shop-revolutionaries care about foreign policy, meaning they are not 100% evil, but the propositions to invade Nigeria and the lack of propositions, by other commentariat, to back their barbaric yelp of BRING BACK OUR GIRLS, was alarming. Now, it is even more so.

Here is the blowback:

1)Backed by Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, the U.S. military invades Libya
2)The U.S. military puts advanced-grade arms**** into the hands of rebels to First Among Equals Khadafi's regime
3)Some of these arms are given, by these rebels, to Boko Haram of Nigeria
4)An armed Boko Haram kidnaps 200 plus Nigerian women

Boko Haram is literally selling women for cattle. If you still care, please pray to the Lord, fund voluntary grassroots initiatives to uproot Boko Haram, and help others think critically over this before making decisions.


Post Scriptum:

*If they did, they would dedicate more time to formulate coherent strategies to aid the couple hundred girls that were captured
**Much like Where's Waldo, except with an African guerrilla fighter that they have less experience with than with Waldo.
*** First Lady of The United States - currently Michelle Obama
****According to Reuters, "rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns with anti-aircraft visors, automatic rifles, ammunition, grenades, explosives, and light anti-aircraft artillery... mounted on vehicles"