President says he delayed a strike on ISIS targets in Nigeria by a day so the strike would land on Christmas; says he wanted to give the militants 'a Christmas present.'

OK. Christmas Day. The President announced, by way of a social-media post in the morning, that the United States military had conducted a strike on ISIS targets in northwestern Nigeria. The strike, per AFRICOM, used Tomahawk missiles fired from a Navy vessel and hit two ISIS camps in Sokoto state. The Nigerian president, per his foreign minister’s confirmation, was consulted twice by the Secretary of State, once before the strike, once after. The strike, in the operational sense, was coordinated. Good.

Buddy. The thing I want to talk about is not the strike. The strike, on its own terms, is a defensible operational decision in a long-running campaign. ISIS has, on the public record, attacked Christians in northern Nigeria for years. The strike, against legitimate ISIS military targets, in coordination with the Nigerian government, after lawful authorization, is a defensible military action. That part I will give them.

The thing I want to talk about is the quote. The President, in an interview with Politico the same morning, said the following sentence on the record. I am quoting. “They were going to do it earlier… And I said, ‘nope, let’s give a Christmas present.’ They didn’t think that was coming, but we hit them hard. Every camp got decimated.”

Christmas present. He used the words Christmas present. About the Tomahawk strike. The Tomahawk strike, per the framing, was the present the United States gave to ISIS on the birthday of, in the administration’s own framing, the Christ child whom the Christians ISIS targets are remembering.

Buddy. I am not a theologian. I am not a chaplain. I have, however, attended Mass on Christmas Eve about fifty-five times. I have prayed for peace about fifty-five times. I have heard the gospel of Luke read fifty-five times. In no version of the gospel of Luke does the angel say to the shepherds, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be a delayed Tomahawk strike for all people. That is not in the gospel. I have checked.

The military operation. Fine. The framing. Buddy. The framing is not Christmas. You do not, on the day the country celebrates the birth of the Prince of Peace, characterize an act of war as a Christmas present. You do not. You can do the act of war. It can even be a defensible act of war. But you do not put a bow on it.

I am arguing with the television. The television is on a Tomahawk loop with jingle bells in the background. The room is quiet. The room is very quiet.