Terrorists must, because of their inherent weakness, select soft targets. Few may be softer than a country that likes to think it is closeted by its isolation. An air of complacency prevails even though examples of terrorism, notably the Bali bombings and last year's Sydney hostage crisis, have taken place very close to home.
This makes New Zealand something of a "sitting duck", according to Bridgette Sullivan-Taylor, an expert in the field. Her warning should be taken seriously, especially as it echoes the concerns of this country's Security Intelligence Service.
Rebecca Kitteridge, the SIS head, said this week that the threat of a terrorist attack had increased over the past year. There are several reasons.
The troops now deploying to Iraq in a joint training mission with Australia raise the threat of retaliation. Another factor is the increased use of social media to encourage people to mount attacks in their own countries. As in Sydney, an individual can cause havoc. A third strand is the singling out of targets in the Western world. The Somali-based Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab has called for attacks on shopping malls,specifically those owned by Westfield.
That has clear implications for this country. Westfield has nine centres here. An attack on one of these is conceivable if only because security in countries like Britain and the United States is much tighter.
