The truly humiliating thing about Naija is not even the US. It is Chad. What do you think of when Chad is mentioned? Failed state. These are the guys helping the largest economy on the continent to recover lost towns. I had never realized just how low Naija's military has sunk.
I think the US would only intervene if the oil production in the South is threatened. That said, it is indeed incredible how these folks bad mouth the US on the one had, begging bowl extended in the other.
The Chadians are a breed with a martial tradition. These are folks who meted out resounding defeats to Gaddafi's over-equipped forces in successive battles in 1983, '84, and the clincher being the battle of 1986, where the Chadians seized $1 billion worth of military hardware as Gaddafi's boys fled across the sand dunes of the Sahara.
Years from now when history is written the Nigeria v. Boko Haram fight will be a case study at military academies and MBA management courses of how poor leadership - civilian and military - can contribute to disastrous results. First, the indecisiveness and ineptitude of one Goodluck Jonathan. Second, the ineptitude and incompetence of the Nigerian High Command.
See, Jonathan should have been at the forefront boosting the morale of his army - proving from the outset what a couple of years ago that he was on top of things. It would also seem that his generals failed to maintain military cohesion; command and control was virtually nonexistent.