The US president said his Department of War had carried out “numerous perfect strikes” and that the US would “not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper”.
“May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” he added.
It is the latest round of military action by the US, following weeks of military buildup and strikes on boats around Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, casting increasing doubt over the President’s claim to be the “President of Peace”.
The Independent takes a look at why Trump has decided to strike Nigeria and what the reaction has been.
The U.S. launched a deadly strike against ISIS terrorists in Nigeria Thursday night, according to the Department of Defense (Department of Defense)
How did the US strike Nigeria?
The US military targeted Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria in a major escalation.
Nigeria’s overstretched military has struggled to contain Islamic terrorism for years.
The strikes were carried out in the strikes in Sokoto state, one of the areas where Nigeria is battling multiple armed groups. Lagos said the US strikes were part of an exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination between the two countries.
Officials did not say exactly which group was targeted, but security analysts said the target was likely members of a militant group called Lakurawa, which became more lethal in border states like Sokoto and Kebbi in the last year, often targeting remote communities and security forces.
Trump wished the ‘dead terrorists’ a ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’ (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Why has Trump decided to strike Nigeria?
Trump said the strikes were against Islamic State militants he claimed were “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.”
The security crisis in Nigeria is affecting both Christians, predominant in the south, and Muslims, who are the majority in the north, residents and security analysts told The Associated Press.
The armed groups in Nigeria include two affiliated with the Islamic State. They include an offshoot of the Boko Haram group known as the Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast, and in the northwest, the lesser-known Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) known locally as Lakurawa.
Lakurawa militants, who have been active in northwest Nigeria since around 2017 after being invited by authorities in Sokoto to protect against bandit groups, have now “overstayed their welcome, clashing with some of the community leaders … and enforcing a harsh interpretation of sharia law that alienated much of the rural population,” says James Barnett, an Africa researcher with the Washington-based Hudson Institute
The Christian MAGA in the US would approve anything which appears to be protecting Christians.
Maga Christianity represents a self-serving, commercialized version of the Christian faith – putting power over service and empathy – and it is everywhere in our federal government. In February, Trump announced a taskforce led by Pam Bondi with the goal of rooting out “anti-Christian” bias. In September, Trump announced his plans to protect prayer in schools. Later that month, he issued a memorandum identifying anti-Christianity as a potential driver of terrorism. These are not just one-off incidents. This is a national effort to push the Maga Christianity agenda on Americans, and we’re already seeing the consequences.
Despite the Bible’s clear call to “love thy neighbor”, the Maga movement has used its version of the Christian faith to oppress immigrants, oppose the rights of women and condemn the LGBTQ+ community. At the same time, we’ve seen shootings at places of worship and arrests of faith leaders at peaceful protests.
We must never forget the launch pad for ISIS was the collapse of the Baath Party:
By: Kifah Mahmoud
The Middle East has witnessed major political changes in recent decades, most notably the collapse of the Baath Party in both Iraq and Syria, a party that ruled the two countries with an iron grip for decades and waged devastating wars that deeply affected the peoples of the two countries, especially Lebanon, Iran, and Kuwait, not to mention the countless victims whose numbers exceeded millions between the dead, wounded, detained, and displaced individuals.
These wars ultimately led to the disastrous downfall of both regimes, leaving their countries in near-total devastation. Without going into the details of what happened, the fall of the Baath Party and the collapse of its regime were followed by the emergence of political Islamist parties, with Shia parties dominating in Iraq. At the same time, the influence of Sunni Islamist factions increased in Syria, especially after the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011.
The reason for this, in my opinion, is the immense frustration of nationalists in both countries and the extremism caused by their rule, which amounted to the racism that antagonized the various components of Iraq and Syria. This, in turn, resulted in a catastrophic conflict in Iraq, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom were either killed, displaced, or had their regions subjected to Arabization in both countries.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
borderslynn 
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