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Dear Sir,
At first the executions of Westerners by ISIL - the Islamic State - were of newspaper reporters. Rightly people were disgusted. The term barbaric does not do justice to the execution itself.
The victim is not anesthetised or even knocked unconscious but has their  throat slit by a knife and the head severed by the knife continuing to saw through bone and sinew.
For maximum effect the bloody corpse is then displayed with the severed head stuck on the chest. This is in no way accidental as individual Muslim often slaughter their own animals on holy days so know how to do it “humanely” but in no way so demonstrably cruel. Evidently these murders did not shock enough so now aid workers have been target for death. Our level of odium has struck new levels of incomprehension with the butchering of Alan Henning, a chubby radiant cab driver doing more than his bit delivering aid to help the suffering Syrians. Another ratchet has been notched up as the next in line for decapitation is Abdul-Rahman (formerly Peter Edward) Kassig, not only a humanitarian medical aid worker but an American convert to Islam.
Incomprehensible? Not really.
The Extremists are setting out to offend and insult the West to the maximum. The kinder the person, the more good they are doing the better to mock the Infidels with their escalating brutality. The last people they wish in their Caliphate are Western do-gooders. They want to goad the unbelievers (us) into using NATO forces to attack them on the ground and from the air killing innocent women and children bystanders in numbers which will aid their recruitment and confirm waverers doubting the evil intentions of these new Crusaders.
They do not want Arab forces attacking them, not from fear, but for propaganda gains if the visible enemy is not Islamic but heathen. They are succeeding in their intrigue. We are unable to ignore them and unable to count on the Arab forces who militarily already overwhelmingly outnumber ISIS and so should be able to neutralise them without our help if they really wished.
Mike Lillico
Playa de Palma