Another ISIS Casualty

Kayla Mueller

An irredeemably idealistic young Arizona woman, 25, has died while being held captive by the irredeemably irrational Islamic State.

Through its very efficient communications system, ISIS has conveyed images of Kayla Mueller's corpse to her family, who acknowledged yesterday that their daughter is gone.  

ISIS says the young woman died in a building that was bombed by the Jordanian air force.

I don't believe it.  It's way too convenient for the terrorists, a curious and crass attempt to claim the high ground.  By this rationale, the Islamic State is a victim.  Good luck with that.

Even if Ms. Mueller died in a bomb attack, which I doubt, the blame accrues to the Islamic State, which held her against her will in a war zone.

Ms. Mueller went to Syria in 2013 to help refugees and was captured soon afterward by ISIS, which pressed, as usual, for a cash ransom in negotiations that ended late last summer.  

It has been suggested that ISIS continued to hold her because it did not want to be seen staging the public execution of a woman.  Since its members don't appear to believe women have basic human rights, I don't get why killing one would be a problem for them.  Of course, logic has never been an ISIS strong suit.

Whatever happened, Kayla Mueller's blood is on its hands, just like that of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines, Herve Gourdel, Allan Henning, TV cameraman Raad al-Azzouri, Peter Kassig, Haruna Yukawa, Kenji Goto, Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kassabah and untold thousands of unfortunate Syrians, Kurds, Iraqis and Egyptians.

If there is a just God, these people will suffer more than any of their victims.