After three weeks the Western world has finally woken up and is now attempting to do something about the outrageous abduction of nearly three hundred, mostly adolescent, girls by the Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram. The name translates to “Western education is forbidden” and the prehistoric nutters behind it contend that the laws of Islam forbid the education of females – without exception. They have been conducting a campaign of terror in Nigeria for the last five years or so carrying out mass abductions and murdering thousands of innocent people in the process.

The corrupt and grossly incompetent government of Nigeria headed by President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife Patience (names like something out of a Monty Python film and hardly likely to inspire confidence) have done little or nothing to alleviate the problem. But there’s no surprise there.

One would have thought that the United Nations would have stepped in, particularly since many of its top officials come from backward third world countries sharing much in common with Nigeria, but of course nothing has been done. It therefore falls to the West yet again, namely America and her allies to do something about it and although the vacillating President Obama is now taking action it may well prove to be too little too late.

We in the so-called civilised world are sick of conflict having been duped into sending our young men and women to fight and die in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan over alleged weapons of mass destruction and other spurious claims and our reluctance to become involved in further foreign adventures is understandable.

However, there are certain matters that cannot be ignored since they strike at the heart of all that humanity holds dear and sacred. The abduction and probable systematic rape of hundreds of schoolgirls, literally snatched from their classrooms, is one of those.

If the UK, alongside the USA, decides to send in troops to release those innocent young children from these savages I doubt that many of us would object. How could we?

When somebody stands up to the playground bully the bully usually backs down. This is because most bullies are cowards and whilst they like to dish it out they don’t like getting it back. However, it’s no use threatening the bully unless you intend to carry out that threat.

The same thing applies when dealing with children, as any responsible parent or competent teacher will testify. If a child is warned of the consequences of bad behaviour and no consequences follow his bad behaviour he will know that the warnings are meaningless and he will continue to behave badly.

I wonder if Putin would behave the way he does if he was faced by a Kennedy or a Reagan?