Coming soon to Islamabad, a shining example of the glories of shari’a. This is the second cell-phone video of Taliban brutality this month to “shock” Pakistan; the uproar over the first was sufficient to merit a story in the NYT. How is it, I wonder, that people who share a country with these degenerates are more surprised by their behavior than I am? This is who they are, and this is what they do. It’s one thing for Americans to have been sleepwalking about jihadism before 9/11 considering that it was almost entirely an overseas phenomenon, but what’s Pakistan’s excuse?

Too late now, in any case.

Islamabad’s defences are being hurriedly fortified, with paramilitary troops stationed on the Margalla Hills, which overlook the city from the West. In the capital, there are thousands of followers of the radical Red Mosque, where there are now open calls for Islamic revolution at the weekly Friday prayers.

“The Taliban will not stop at Swat. They will come towards Islamabad,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a military analyst based in Lahore. “If the army is to take action against them, it is going to be a really bloody battle. And then civil government will be knocked out.”

“Extremist groups based in Islamabad will move from within and they (Taliban) will build pressure from outside.”

According to the Telegraph, the Taliban actually invited a local reporter to record this as a warning to anyone who might see it of what’s coming. The Pakistani military liquidated 30 of them today, to serve notice that taking Islamabad won’t be easy, but there have been what seems like 100 of these halting operations over the last few years all following the same pattern: Tough talk from the government, incursion into the tribal areas, fighting ending in a stalemate, and finally “peace treaty” and withdrawal. I wonder how much territory they’ll get when the treaty ending this latest op is signed. Content warning.