the cautious life.

Thanks for the hospitality. Now where’s that lethal injection?

Okay, so that’s not exactly what Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged terrorist mastermind, said when he emerged from a five-year cone of silence into a Guantanamo Bay military courtroom this morning, but it’s pretty much the gist of it.

And what’s more, according to The New York Times, he “cheerfully” addressed the court while asking the judge to execute him.

“Mr. Mohammed did not shy away from the spotlight. It was difficult, he explained, to establish a common ground with the lawyers sent by the American government to defend him after five years of custody.

“Then,” he continued, warming to his subject, “after torturing, they transfer us to Inquisitionland in Guantánamo.”

Mohammed, who claims to have engineered the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, spent the five years since his 2003 arrest in Pakistan in several secret C.I.A. prisons and Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. government admits having subjected him to waterboarding.

This fascinates me — mostly because I think it highlights how little we in the United States understand the forces that shape and motivate the people we now consider our enemies, forces that make them defiant even after years of isolation and being subjected to what many consider torture.

Even if Mohammed’s bluster is just that, a savvy put-on for the benefit of reporters and the American public, it underscores the importance of appearances. Saddam Hussein raged for the cameras present for his trial, but, behind closed doors, according to 60 Minutes, he was a clean freak who depended on his FBI handler for moist wipes.

[The agent] even used Saddam’s birthday, a former national holiday, to drive home another painful point. “In 2004, no one celebrated his birthday on April 28th. So the only one that really knew and cared was us. I’d brought him some cookies, and we, the FBI, celebrated his birthday for him.”

Yet many people will probably most remember the shaky video images of him standing tall, unmasked and at least outwardly calm moments before dropping through the gallows.