What is the best response when facing a regional insurgency and your troops are fanning the flames with violent raids that leave as many civilians dead as insurgents? President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria seems to think it is to send in even more troops. On May 14th he declared a state of emergency in three northern states that suffer most frequently from terrorist attacks. Unlike the "surge" of American troops in Iraq in 2007, which increased numbers but also refined tactics, Nigeria is going after Boko Haram, a brutal jiha-dist group, with a sledgehammer. "We will hunt them down, we will fish them out," the president declared on national television.
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