Why Attack Canada? It's About Getting Attention

Why poor sleepy Ottawa, capital of inoffensive quintessentially nice old Canada? Why the murder of two soldiers in a few days? Why the parliament building?

It's all about getting attention.

Attention of this kind will inevitably mean that Canada will have to change the way it does life.

Until now public places like Parliament Hill had remained just that - places where the public were safe, that were open and peaceful.

That's all changed now.

Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and other great cities in Canada will now begin to adopt the fortressing techniques that already seal the White House and the Houses of Parliament in Westminster into a bubble of steel and concrete.

Canada's military, which is involved as part of the American-led coalition currently bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq, went into lockdown as the news of the murder of the ceremonial guard on the capital's National War Memorial spread .

Terror attacks are intended to live up to their name. They're intended to have strategic effect - the effect of engendering fear.

And since al Qaeda came on the scene in earnest they're intended to boost recruitment to the Salafi cause of establishing an Islamist caliphate across the whole planet.

Canadian troops fought in Afghanistan but somehow managed to almost entirely escape the attacks and threats which other countries in the West endured for also taking part in the now heavily discredited campaign known as the War On Terror.

Whoever is behind the Ottawa attack noted this - and from their own perspective aimed to sweep Canada into a brotherhood of slightly paranoid nations.

These days terror groups are encouraged to stay small, ideally just operating as individuals. They're instructed by al Qaeda and Islamic State in how to establish small cells, stay away from communications that can expose them before they strike.

Their aim is not, in the short or medium term, to gain outright victory. It is, rather, to provoke, maintain and expand conflict even if, like a suicide bomber, they may actually lose entirely.