A Thursday night drone strike targeting a vehicle in Syria killed everyone inside, likely including the infamous English-speaking Kuwaiti-born Briton dubbed “Jihadi John.” In reality the evidently deceased snuff film narrator was named Mohammed Emwazi. Raised in west London, Emwazi was a fan of soccer and struggled with anger management issues before undergoing a period of radicalization between 2009 and 2013, when he disappeared from his home in the United Kingdom and emerged in Syria. The world would likely never have known of Emwazi had he not appeared in seven decapitation videos produced by ISIS, taunting the families of murdered journalists and aid workers, and threatening further carnage.
“This guy was a human animal, and killing him is probably making the world a little bit better place,” Col. Warren said of Emwazi. But it seems to me the mother of slain journalist James Foley deserves the last word.