Terrorist's unemotional TV confession is chilling

It was a confession seen and heard round the world. The 35-year-old widow faced the television camera and explained matter-of-factly how the bomb that was wrapped around her body failed to detonate. The bomb contained 22 pounds of RDX explosives and hundreds of ball-bearings
"My husband detonated [his bomb] and I tried to explode [mine] but it wouldn't," Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawa explained in a quiet, unemotional voice. "People fled running and I left running with them."
The confession was made on Jordanian television Sunday shortly after she was arrested. The Iraqi woman and her husband entered the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman on Wednesday with the intention of attacking a wedding party.
Al-Rishawa described how her husband helped plan the raids on the Radisson SAS, Grand Hyatt and Days Inn hotels and how he fitted her suicide bomb belt. She said they entered the hotel together and when he saw that her trigger mechanism was not working told her to leave the building. She did.
In all, 57 people were killed as a result of the bombings in the three hotels, including al-Rishawa's husband, Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, 35.
But there were no tears shed by the Iraqi widow whose brother was once a deputy of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian born leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq. The brother was killed in Fallujah, a former terrorist stronghold in Iraq. There was no beating of the chest, nor the high-pitched wailing that is heard so often in Iraq after car bombs go off on the streets of Baghdad or other cities.
Children killed
It was a chilling performance on television because it was devoid of humanity. There were children among the hundreds of guests at the wedding reception in the Radisson. Their innocent lives were snuffed out in an instant, and yet al-Rishawa offered no expression of regret.
What makes a person like her tick?
That is a question Jordanian officials should explore as they interrogate her. Without a doubt, the first order of business is to exact information from her about operations of al-Zarqawi's group, which has claimed responsibility for the bombings in Amman, the deadliest in the country's history.
The group said the attacks were in retaliation for Jordanian support for the United states and other western powers.
Al-Zarqawi is the mastermind of suicide bombings and other acts of violence against U.S.-led coalition forces and government officials in Iraq. The attacks have resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 American troops.
But just as important as finding out about the inner workings of the terrorist organization is the need to understand why individuals like al-Rishawa and her husband, al-Shamari, are willing to put their lives on the line.
To understand the mindset of the suicide bomber is to understand what challenges confront the United States and other western nations as they try to spread democracy throughout the Middle East.
It is not enough to dismiss suicide bombers as evil. Doing so fails to answer the question, "Why?"