The Westgate Mall is a test. It is only a test. Regular programming will resume shortly.

Terrorists give a new meaning to "shop till you drop."

I have been saying for years that if the jihadists are serious about striking at the heart of the Great Satan, they won't waste their time wearing explosives as fashion statements on airplanes or sneaking little bottles of weaponized cough syrup through security. Not when there are thousands upon thousands of targets as soft as a baby's bum where Americans gather. A massacre at a shopping mall, or three, or 10, will destroy life as we know it.

Not just because it will wreck the economy. The psychological effect on the population will be more devastating than September 11, which for the most part has already been reduced to a Hallmark holiday commemorated with ceremonies that seem more routine by the year and a genteel televised teardrop. Killing hostages at malls will induce mass psychosis. Americans afraid to shop. What will they do with themselves? What will they live for?

The jihadists in Nairobi culled the non-Muslims from the crowd for special treatment ... like execution. Victims reportedly had their faces burned and hands cut off to prevent identification (why? Death wasn't satisfying enough -- Al Shabaab needed an extra thrill from mutilation?). Bodies were piled in entrances as barriers. The attackers gloated as they tweeted play-by-play messages about the horror they were causing.

The Daily Mail story says:

Up to three American teenagers were among the terrorists who attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya's foreign minister Amina Mohamed confirmed on Monday. The Americans, aged between 18 and 19, of Somali or Arab origin, lived in Minnesota and one other place in the U.S, she said in an interview with the PBS NewsHour. ...

US authorities are concerned that Al Shabab is using violent propaganda videos that glorify terrorism to lure youths from Minnesota's Somali community to fight in the Middle East against the West and its allies. ...

The Twin Cities has one of the largest Somali communities in the world, with around 35,000 residents emanating from the east African nation, and there are fears that Al Shabab has been actively recruiting from it. WCCO-TVreported that one recruit, Dahir Gure, who has since been killed, said: ‘This is the real Disneyland. You have to join us.’

But I refuse to write a posting about the lessons we should learn from this, because we will learn nothing. 

The script is already written. We will be warned against a "backlash" against Somalis who have turned a chunk of Minnesota into East Africa. Fair enough. But nobody will ask: what are they doing here in the first place? Why do we have mass immigration from places that have no concept of American values? Why is population replacement U.S. government policy?

Politicians who store up their prayers for special occasions, like a disaster or atrocity, will queue up to the microphone to announce that their thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims.

The media will be full to overflowing with stories of good African immigrants who drive taxis (but no seeing-eye dogs allowed if the driver is Muslim), sell food from sidewalk carts, and are now trembling with fear from American citizens who rescued them from their native hellholes. 

There will be more security everywhere, further draining funds that might be put to some economically useful purpose. CCTV. Uniformed oafs frisking you in the mall as other shoppers look on, snickering. Official law enforcement officers and various species of rent-a-cops stopping and questioning you ... unless you look like an immigrant. "Oh, you're an IT specialist from Pakistan? My mistake, sire. Free to go."

Our crypto-Muslim president will inform us that it is our duty to welcome a few hundred thousand more Somalis to our shores so they can be converted into Americans through social work programs. Midnight camel races? Encouraging the building of more mosques will help, providing religious guidance.

What about those jihadis who took pleasure in their killing recreation? A bunch of losers. They have no influence (except when they point a gun at your face). They hate us for our freedoms. And there's no greater freedom than to re-settle in the Formerly United States.