Margaret Hassan

Isn’t it strange how the people who murdered Margaret Hassan couldn’t bring themselves to behead her? In moral or in strategic terms it just doesn’t make any sense. Surely they didn’t believe that any of the people they killed deserved to die, they must have reasoned that those people were simply innocent victims of the conflict, what the Americans would call collateral damage. In which case I can’t understand why they killed Margaret Hassan by shooting her, but videoed it anyway. If the film they released is supposed to cause shock and terror then why not make it as gory as possible? If they wanted to come across as good guys, merciful and kind, then why not just let her go? I am really puzzled by this. Surely they don’t imagine that their mothers will be saying “There, see, my boy’s not so bad” down at the market today.