Tale of Two Hashtags

Perhaps, as spokesman Josh Earnest now says, the Obama administration ought to have sent a more senior official to the antiterror rally in Paris this past weekend.

But we don’t blame the president for not going. The test of a world leader’s response to a savage terrorist attack is not whether he will join a public Kumbaya moment. The test is whether he responds with policies that both recognize the unique threat posed by Islamist terrorists and aim to stop attacks before they can happen. The signs are not reassuring. Less than a year ago, Michelle Obama was photographed holding up the hashtag du jour: #BringBackOurGirls. It was meant to signal the world’s determination to help Nigeria’s government return to their families 200 Nigerian girls who had been kidnapped from their school by Boko Haram.

Since then, Boko Haram has announced its support for the Islamic State and al Qaeda. Not only haven’t the kidnapped Nigerian girls been brought home, Boko Haram has just slaughtered perhaps 2,000 people in fresh attacks. Some of its victims Boko Haram burnt alive, while others were blown up by child suicide bombers.

Plainly there’s been a huge disparity in coverage between the massacres in Nigeria and France. Less noticed is how both attacks underscore the impotence of world leaders. We wonder: How many of the same people who marched in Paris this past weekend were only months ago tweeting about how the world would do anything it took to bring those Nigerian girls home?

Hashtags and handholding have their place — but as an encouragement to action, not as a substitute for it.