In reply to:
I just think it odd that something like this that hardly touches anyone's life (you don't know the person beheaded, or his family, never met the guy, probably don't even know his name) has a large group of people cooked up into war fever, wanting revenge... but for each of us who have lost a friend or family member to something that is preventable (everyone here has lost someone to cancer, heart disease, petty crime, corporate crime) but hardly anyone honours this loss with the same intensity.
Preventable vs unpreventable is one way to look at it, but intentional vs unintentional is another. No one specific person inflicted cancer on a person. Drunk driving is preventable, but a drunk driver hitting a person wasn't intentional. I think it's easier for people to forgive mistakes and accidents than for them to forgive intentional executions.
