Tuesday’s attack on the DusitD2 hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, reminds us of Salafi jihadis’ war with the world. Paying heed to its atrocities matters for two reasons.
First off, these kind of attacks speak volumes about the Salafi jihadis’ ideology and intent. In this attack by the Somalia-based al Shabab on a five-star hotel, the terrorists were clearly focused on three targets: international visitors, wealthy or influential Kenyans, and symbols. Mixing wealthier Kenyans and business persons from abroad, top hotels reflect a physical and symbolic center of power in Nairobi.
Targeting them thus gives al Shabab guaranteed media attention and the corollary opportunity to undercut the Kenyan government’s policy interest in attracting more foreign investment. And with dark emotion being a constant driver of Salafi jihadi recruitment and propaganda, this attack will be seen by al Shabab followers as a valiant strike at the enemy’s heart. The attackers who entered the hotel complex knew they were almost certainly going to die, but they didn’t care. They cared only about spreading Kenyan fear and political discomfort as a means of weakening Kenya’s broader democratic stability. That question of stability is of instrumental importance here. With Kenya beset by continuing political, religious, and ethnic tensions, attacks such as this one risk overreactions by government security forces that al Shabab hopes will drive Kenyan Muslims into its ranks. That expansion of ranks and relevance is al Shabab’s focal goal here. Although the group claims it is resisting Kenyan military operations against its forces in Somalia, its ultimate ambition is that of all transnationally focused Salafi jihadi groups: the destruction of civil society and its replacement by a totalitarian caliphate a la the Islamic State. Innocent people, such as those killed at the hotel on Tuesday, are the tools of this effort.
Of course, that pernicious calculus of innocents as tools of empire is also the great vulnerability of al Shabab and its ideological comrades. Because it shows that, at their core, these terrorists have nothing to offer but totalitarianism via the barrel of a gun.
In that evident evil, we find the rest of the world’s motivation to unify against them. That’s particularly relevant to Kenya. After all, it is striking that the police response here was more rapid, coordinated, and aggressive than in previous incidents. In large part that is likely a consequence of the years of training that Kenyan SWAT units have received from the British military. Britain operates a number of military facilities in Kenya, and at least one British SBS or SAS operator appears to have been photographed supporting rescue operations at the hotel. Alongside reciprocal intelligence operations and U.S. military pressure on al Shabab in Somalia, Kenya is in a far better position to resist terrorists. While the death toll today was obviously too high — it always is in any terrorist attack — it would likely have been far higher without the alliances that al Shabab now finds arrayed against it.
So yes, our attention to attacks like Tuesday’s matter. But not simply for our recognition of the enemy — also for proof of how counterterrorism alliances can save and/or mitigate the loss of life.
