(CNN) - The former chairman of the House Homeland Security committee is urging the United States and others not to negotiate with Boko Haram, the terrorist group in Nigeria that has kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls.
Instead, Rep. Peter King, R-New York, said he would support President Obama if he were to send U.S. special forces to rescue them.
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"This is one of those terribly difficult decisions - morally difficult - but I would say no, that we cannot negotiate," King told CNN's Erin Burnett. "If it were my daughter or my wife or my sister, I realize the human impact. But the fact is once you start negotiating with terrorists, it just leads to more violence."
King, who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has been a leading advocate of the United States’ so-called "War on Terror," unafraid to criticize the Obama administration for, in his opinion, doing too little against a resurgent al Qaeda, fueled by strengthening affiliate networks around the world.
Boko Haram has loose ties to al Qaeda, mainly its affiliate in West Africa and extremist groups in Mali.
"Put it this way: If the President decided to use Special Forces, I certainly would not oppose them," he said on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” adding that the United States’ main responsibility is to provide intelligence and surveillance to the Nigerians.
"I realize all the complexities involved, all the dangers involved," he said, but "as commander-in-chief, if he made that decision, I would support him."
At the moment, the United States is providing manned aerial surveillance planes over Nigerian territory, gathering intelligence in support of the efforts to find the girls, and sharing commercial satellite images with the Nigerians, according to U.S. officials.
–CNN's Elise Labott contributed to this report.