Dr. LaKeshia N. Myers
By LaKeshia N. Myers
The holiday season brought anything but peace on earth this year. On Christmas Day, U.S. forces struck ISIS targets in Nigeria. Days later, on December 30th, the administration bombed Venezuelan territory for the first time. These actions, wrapped in rhetoric about fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, deserve far more scrutiny than they’re receiving.
President Trump claims our Christmas Day strikes targeted ISIS fighters persecuting Christians in northwest Nigeria. But the Nigerian government tells a different story. According to Nigerian officials, the strikes were coordinated operations against Boko Haram militants—not specifically about religious persecution. Nigeria’s Information Minister was clear: portraying the nation’s security challenges as targeting one religious group is a “gross misrepresentation of reality.”
For those unfamiliar, Boko Haram shocked the world in 2014 when they kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from Chibok. The name roughly translates to “Western education is forbidden.”
Those young women, snatched from their dormitories while preparing for exams, became symbols of terror in Nigeria. Some escaped, some were freed through negotiations, but 82 remain missing to this day—over a decade later.
Here’s what the Trump Administration isn’t telling you: violence in Nigeria isn’t simply Christianity versus Islam. Data shows that out of more than 20,000 civilians killed between 2020 and 2025, attacks explicitly targeting Christians numbered 317, while attacks targeting Muslims totaled 417. Muslims make up the majority of victims from extremist violence, since these groups operate primarily in Muslim-majority northern Nigeria.
Now let’s talk about Venezuela. The administration claims it struck a dock used for loading drug boats. Yet despite conducting over two dozen strikes since September that killed more than 100 people, the U.S. has presented zero evidence of drug trafficking. Multiple analyses confirm Venezuela is not a major source of drugs entering the United States.
What Venezuela does have is oil. At 303 billion barrels, Venezuela possesses the world’s largest proven oil reserves—more than five times what the United States holds. When Trump aide Stephen Miller says Venezuelan oil “belongs to Washington,” he’s revealing what this is really about. American companies helped develop Venezuela’s oil fields until the country nationalized its resources in the 1970s—as was their sovereign right under international law.
Nigeria also has resources that make it strategically valuable. The nation holds significant uranium deposits—an estimated 200 tons across seven states. Uranium is essential for nuclear capability, and while Nigeria’s reserves are modest, they represent untapped potential that various nations would love to control.
This is the pattern we must recognize: military intervention justified by humanitarian concerns, with resource-rich nations always in the crosshairs. We’ve seen this movie before—in Iraq, in Libya, in countless nations where American “interests” aligned suspiciously well with oil fields and mineral deposits.
The cost always falls on the same people. Our tax dollars fund the missiles. Our service members risk their lives. And the nations we bomb pick up the pieces while we extract what we want. Meanwhile, here at home, we’re told we can’t afford universal healthcare or properly fund our schools.
What troubles me most is how easily we’re sliding into these conflicts. No congressional debate. No declaration of war. Just presidential announcements and missiles launched. The War Powers Resolution was supposed to prevent this executive overreach, but it’s been rendered toothless.
Make no mistake: these strikes are setting a precedent for expanded military intervention. Once boots are on the ground, once American lives are lost, the political pressure to “finish the job” becomes overwhelming. That’s when limited strikes become occupations, when months turn into years, when billions become trillions.
We must demand better. Before we accept another military adventure, insist on evidence, not assertions. Question whose interests are really being served. Remember that people living in Nigeria and Venezuela are human beings with the same hopes and dreams as our families— not chess pieces moved around a board in service of American empire.
The drumbeat of war is growing louder. If we don’t speak up now, we may find ourselves entangled in conflicts that drain resources, cost precious lives, and accomplish nothing beyond enriching defense contractors and oil companies.
It’s time for Congress to do its job. It’s time for Americans to pay attention. And it’s time we asked: when did bombing other countries become so routine that we barely pause to question why?