Blow up our Malls? Now they are really asking for it.

Al Shabab, the 4^th most lethal violent extremist group in the world is promoting a specific threat to shopping malls in the US and other developed nations.  They posted pictures of America’s biggest shopping mall in Minnesota, a state with a high Muslim population, and encourage independent home grown extremists to carry out such attacks. 

Al Shabab was responsible for the brutal shopping mall attack in Kenya last year that claimed dozens of lives and most terrorist experts believe its threats should be taken seriously.

High level security experts are calling for a “whole of government approach” in addition to military efforts.  They see police, increased surveillance, community outreach, education and economic opportunity efforts will be essential in preventing such attacks.

One expert claimed that global threat of violent extremists is now in a new phase.  If true, wouldn’t a “whole of government” approach also be valuable in each nation.   Unfortunately we have too many holes in global governments making a global ‘whole of government approach” difficult.  Some governments actually support violent extremists. Some unintentionally create them with non-democratic and repressive regimes.  Some create them by supporting those same abusive and often murderous and repressive regimes.  

But the biggest hole in any ‘whole of government approach’ is the absence of any government on the global level.   Sharing intelligence between independent government agencies can be difficult even in democratic nations.  Sharing intelligence between ‘independent’ nations is a monstrous road block.

There should be no doubt that in the face of genocidal leaders and mass murdering criminals the world needs a legitimate policeman.   Most Americans are clear the US should not be the world’s policeman.   The question to ask now is what do Americans fear most?  A global police force capable of going after mass murderers, or mass murderers gunning (or bombing) for consumers in every nation’s shopping mall.

And, if a global intelligence agency doesn’t exist to ferret out potential mass murderers - each nation’s intelligence agencies will be responsible for prying into the private lives of their own citizens to hopefully locate the home grown independent extremists within their own borders, and even beyond.  Goodbye to the US 4^th Amendment.   Will we then rely on citizen arming themselves to protect their loved ones against mass murderers.  Hello to the 2^nd Amendment!  And perhaps American vigilantes taking the war on terrorism into their own hands.   ‘Stand your ground’ laws will take on a whole new meaning…and far greater body count.

This will undoubtedly lead to an endless war on terrorism with collateral damage increasing as the means of mass murder, destruction and disruption increase with the exponential growth of dual-use technology, it’s increasing affordability and global availability. 

The wiser option appears to be a less longer war against the ideology of violent extremism.

As our President said, calling them Islamic extremists only validates their self-image.  It also improves their public image as devout holly warriors fighting the great Satan.

And waging a “war on terrorism” only validates their self-image as warriors, also aiding their recruitment efforts.

Within this context using the terms “Islamic extremists” or “war on terrorism” only aids and abets these mass murdering psychopathic/sociopathic criminals.

It may be too late now to get much ahead of the wave of violence these ideological extremists are dedicated to waging worldwide, but it’s not too late to recognize the value of putting human rights above the rights of nations that freely abuse their citizens, or support other governments that do the same or worse.