They Don't Make Jihadists Like They Used To

Or perhaps innocent women and children are easier targets than cops:

British police had surrounded the flat in Notting Hill where two of the suspects from the July 21 bombing had holed up. Negotiations had commenced, but promised to be short and sharp. Snipers took up positions and police demanded the suspects come out unclothed and with their hands up.

"I have rights!" Ramzi Mohammed wailed from inside.

How ironic. Yes, you do have rights Ramzi — all the rights guaranteed you by the liberal democracy you have pledged to destroy. Rights enshrined in some of the oldest laws of their kind in the world. The same rights enjoyed by the innocent commuters you sought to maim and kill. Rights worth commending; and worth defending.

Moments later the two emerged, as instructed, nearly naked, hands high, in what is certain to be another iconic photo from the global struggle against violent extremism. This is the way it ends sometimes, stripped on a balcony, dragged from a spider hole, or rousted from a safe house in dirty underwear.

"I have rights!" Mohammed repeated to the police. What rights would he enjoy in his ideal society, the utopia promised by his version of sharia? We saw it in the rules the Afghans suffered under during the Taliban tyranny, or the ukases Khomeini bestowed on Iran and under which Iranians largely still suffer under today. Imagine Mohammed's due-process guarantees in the system he was fighting for — torture, ritual readings of some Koranic verses, followed by beheading, or perhaps hanging from a construction crane or soccer goal, or a bullet in the head if he was lucky.

But tell us, Ramzi, why did they take you alive? Why didn't you go out in a blaze of gunfire and glory, seeking what you would call martyrdom, paradise, perhaps taking a few infidels with you? Oh, but that was never in the game plan. Investigators say that after their attack fizzled the bombers scattered to their homes and began a round of cell-phone recriminations. They apparently had not made contingency plans for total equipment failure, so they sat around complaining to each other. With the moment passed and lacking adequate training to adapt creatively, the prospective jihadist warriors played phone tag until they were captured.