Trump's imaginary "War"

[Syne]

Other sources, citing the Open Doors 2025 World Watch List, which covers the period from October 2023 to September 2024, reported 3,100 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons in Nigeria during that specific timeframe.
Mass-casualty incidents in 2025 included the June killing of over 200 Christians in a single attack in north-central Nigeria.
...
In August 2025, at least 13 people were massacred at a mosque in northwest Nigeria.
In a separate incident in late December 2025, a suicide bomber killed at least five at a mosque in Maiduguri.
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) reported that from January 2020 to September 2025, 417 deaths were from attacks explicitly targeting Muslims based on religion.
- Google AI

3,300 over 3 years compared to 435 over 5 years seems like a huge discrepancy.

[Yazata]

In its report published in August, which was an amalgamation of previous research and updated numbers for 2025, it said jihadist groups in Nigeria had killed over 100,000 Christians in the 16 years since 2009.

It also notes that 60,000 "moderate Muslims" also died during this period.
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgqlzkdeeqjo

We don't know what the comparative numbers are in Sokoto state, where the cruise missile strike hit. This Nigerian state is overwhelmingly Muslim, so even if the numbers of Christians killed there is less than the number of Muslims, it might be a much larger percentage of the smaller Christian population. And given the size of the Muslim majority in northern Nigeria, jihadist vs Nigerian army fighting will largely be Muslim vs Muslim, so we would expect many of those killed by the jihadists to be Muslim casualties. Apparently the Nigerian army has been having considerable trouble with the jihadists in that area, and they probably are the ones who gave the Americans the target coordinates they wanted hit.

And we know that the jihadists love to massacre Christian church congregations and attack Christian schools where they kidnap hundreds of children. It's happened repeatedly.

[Magical Realist]

Might not be. There just may be more Christians in that area overall.

Most of Nigeria's Muslim population live in the Northern state, Christians live in the Southern part Christian 46-48%,

Sounds more like a more geographical issue than like a faith-based issue.

"While Christians are demonstrably targeted, security analysts and other monitoring groups emphasize that the violence is part of a broader, multi-faceted security crisis in Nigeria:

Widespread Insecurity: Nigeria faces overlapping challenges including terrorism, banditry, and communal conflicts driven by political, ethnic, and resource disputes.

Muslim Victims: Muslims constitute a significant portion of the total civilian casualties in the country, with mosques and Muslim communities also suffering brutal attacks and mass abductions by armed gangs.

Motivations: The motivations for attacks can be complex, ranging from ideological jihad to financial gain (kidnapping for ransom is common and targets individuals regardless of faith if they can pay).

Differing Data: There are significant variations in data interpretation. While some reports highlight targeted religious violence, other monitoring groups like the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) find that a small proportion of overall civilian deaths are explicitly due to religious targeting, and victims are often determined more by their location than their faith."

[Yazata]

I think that it's odd that Trump's cruise missile attack on ISIS-associated jihadists in northern Nigeria has come under attack from Democrats, while Barack Obama freely launched drone strikes all around the world without a peep.

"The 542 drone strikes that Obama authorized killed an estimated 3,797 people, including 324 civilians. As he reportedly told senior aides in 2011: “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”

https://www.cfr.org/blog/obamas-final-drone-strike-data

Of course we all know that the issue here isn't the hit on some Nigerian radical jihadists. The issue is that it was Trump that did it. So of course it has to be condemned and ridiculed.

It's Trump and we hate him because of... well, reasons.

[Magical Realist]

"Whataboutism (or whataboutery) is a logical fallacy and propaganda tactic that deflects criticism by responding to an accusation with a counter-accusation or by pointing to a different issue, instead of addressing the original point. It avoids accountability by suggesting hypocrisy (e.g., "You do it too!") or by shifting focus, often using phrases like "But what about...?" to distract or imply moral equivalence, thereby preventing constructive dialogue."--Google AI

[Yazata]

Hypocrisy is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or virtues that one's own behavior contradicts, essentially pretending to be virtuous or believing something one doesn't truly hold, often involving criticizing others for actions one commits themselves.

It's a gap between stated beliefs and actual actions, a form of insincerity, and a significant theme in ethics, psychology, and public discourse, from politics to personal life.

The word comes from Greek hypokrisis, meaning "acting on the stage" or "pretense," highlighting the "playing a part" aspect.

[confused2]

Trump has the curse of being the actual president right now. Whether he's better or worse than X doesn't make any difference to what he's actually doing.

[C C]

I think that it's odd that Trump's cruise missile attack on ISIS-associated jihadists in northern Nigeria has come under attack from Democrats, while Barack Obama freely launched drone strikes all around the world without a peep.

"The 542 drone strikes that Obama authorized killed an estimated 3,797 people, including 324 civilians. As he reportedly told senior aides in 2011: “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”

https://www.cfr.org/blog/obamas-final-drone-strike-data [...]

When someone earlier establishes a precedent via national slash global attention and the latter's judgment ultimately either allowing or ignoring such... It sets a guide, criterion, or justification for future holders or occupants of that position to act in the same window of opportunity. And makes the contingent issue of double standards a viable one.

[Syne]

We don't know what the comparative numbers are in Sokoto state, where the cruise missile strike hit. This Nigerian state is overwhelmingly Muslim, so even if the numbers of Christians killed there is less than the number of Muslims, it might be a much larger percentage of the smaller Christian population. And given the size of the Muslim majority in northern Nigeria, jihadist vs Nigerian army fighting will largely be Muslim vs Muslim, so we would expect many of those killed by the jihadists to be Muslim casualties. Apparently the Nigerian army has been having considerable trouble with the jihadists in that area, and they probably are the ones who gave the Americans the target coordinates they wanted hit.

And we know that the jihadists love to massacre Christian church congregations and attack Christian schools where they kidnap hundreds of children. It's happened repeatedly.

That would certainly align with stats here, where most violence is intraracial (committed against the same race) but the lion's share of interracial violence is committed by one group. So it makes sense that Muslims kill more Muslims overall, and that they are responsible for a larger percentage of the inter-religious murder.

[Magical Realist]

I think that it's odd that Trump's cruise missile attack on ISIS-associated jihadists in northern Nigeria has come under attack from Democrats, while Barack Obama freely launched drone strikes all around the world without a peep.

Strangely I rarely follow the actions of the presidents I really support. Call it an inherent faith in their ability to govern. But if this was all goin on back then, then why did no Republicans complain? Was the "liberal media" underreporting it? Could be. But if I didn't say anything about it, and you didn't either, then who's to blame? That I'm bringing up willy-nilly missile strikes with Trump now is what I am responsible for. And I don't think I can be held responsible for not having noticed it before when nobody else noticed it.