Thomas Wictor

On April 14, 2014, the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School. When Nigerian soldiers left the village of Gamboru Ngala to search for the girls, Boko Haram attacked and murdered more than 300. They had armored personnel carriers, rocket-propelled grenades, and explosives. It was an orgy of butchery. My question to you is simple: Are you willing to kill to get the girls back?

Boko Haram is led by Abubakar Shekaku. Like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, he loves to murder people. Analysts can stroke their beards and rationalize the savagery of terrorism, but the simple fact is that these men love to commit murder. It gives them pleasure. They feel nothing but joy at the prospect of taking lives. Zarqawi gave up his his hobby only after two 500-pound bombs were dropped on his head.

The shock wave ruptured his lungs and other internal organs, so he died a relatively slow, painful death. That makes me feel awful!

He was a fat, murderous, beer-drinking loser who used religion as the rationale for his crimes. Abubakar Shekaku is the same. It doesn’t matter if there’s a “method to his madness.” His primary drive is to murder people in the most horrible ways possible. He won’t stop because he loves his work. In my book he deserves to be killed. The world will be a much better place without him.

This is an entirely meaningless gesture.

You’re asking merciless animals to do the right thing. They barricade civilians in churches and burn them alive, laughing while they do so. Why would you even bother trying to engage them?

If you want the girls back, you need to engage Boko Haram in the military sense. The Nigerian security forces can’t do the job because they lack the training and equipment, and they’re too corrupt. Those of you who are putting petitions on my Facebook news feed, will you support an American military operation designed to kill every single member of Boko Haram?

This is what you must support, if you want the girls back.

We’ll have to send in young Americans who will die in combat, and we’ll have to kill most of the enemy, because—like in that footage—they won’t surrender. That video ends with the US Marines using a 25 mm autocannon on the building, firing explosive fragmentation rounds that shredded everyone inside.

It’s almost certain that it’s too late to save the specific Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram on April 14. They’ll be sold into sexual slavery and never seen again. So “sharing” petitions and holding up signs with hashtags is doubly worthless. It makes people feel good about themselves, but it won’t do a thing for the girls already kidnapped, nor will it prevent more kidnappings.

The only thing that will stop this violence and abuse is a level of violence much higher than Boko Haram is willing to tolerate. The vast majority of armed insurgencies are defeated by force. Negotiations and dialogue are a waste of time, and they confer legitimacy on the creatures committing these atrocities. How can you reward mass murderers by agreeing to anything they want? That mindset is completely alien to me.

Those who commit mass murder must themselves be killed, if only to render them harmless. I keep hearing “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind,” a quote attributed to Gandhi. That’s a cute slogan, but I’m not talking about gouging out anybody’s eyes. My concern is the very real horror inflicted on the world by bloodthirsty monsters like Boko Haram. I want to stop them. The only way is to kill them.

For the Nigerians this isn’t a nice, theoretical discussion that we can have as we sip our lattes. Real people are being butchered, kidnapped, and raped.

So, I ask again: Are you willing to kill to get the girls back?

Because if you aren’t, then you’re not willing to get the girls back.

Sometimes killing is the only moral thing to do. Sometimes violence is the only answer. Sometimes nonviolence is evil.

Nigeria is a mess, but Africa in general is improving. Stability and security are the most important factors in overcoming endemic poverty. As long as groups like Boko Haram exist, there will be a need for weapons and people willing to use them. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is another group of degenerates who murder, torture, kidnap, and rape. After years of attacks, the village of Obo began building homemade shotguns to defend themselves.

That solved the problem. The LRA now leaves Obo alone.

Who’s more moral, the person who refuses to engage in violence to protect children, or the person who builds a gun and kills the kidnapping murderers?