Shooting anyone who yells “Allahu Akhbar” may be “over-the-top” – but, European leaders still need to “wake up” to the “growing, more menacing terrorist threat,” Former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Monday.
Responding on Fox News to Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro’s recent declaration that anyone who “runs into St Mark’s Square shouting ‘Allahu Akhbar’ will be shot, Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Bolton said that lost tourism may prompt some political leaders to clamp down on terrorism - even if concern for public safety doesn’t:
“That’s over the top [shooting shouters].
“But, I do think what it reflects is that at least some political leaders in Europe are beginning to sense that the terrorist threat is going to have an impact on them. Not only their own citizens, obviously, but in a city like Venice, like Barcelona, heavily dependent on tourism, there’s going to be an economic impact here.”
Still, Europeans may have to suffer more tragic attacks before their political leaders finally “wake up” and clamp down on the increasingly dangerous terrorist threat, Bolton said:
“You have to wonder, what it will take, how many tragedies are necessary, to get the broader political leadership in Europe to wake up to this continuing, I would say, growing, more menacing terrorist threat.”