Another video from ISIS, another gruesome beheading. This time, the victim was David Haines, a British aid worker who was kidnapped at a refugee camp in Syria last year.

Islamic State's stated intent in murdering Haines was to warn the Brits not to join the US coalition forming against them. I don't think they're stupid enough to believe that beheading a British national wouldn't enrage the British people and make UK participation in the coalition far more likely. So, the motivation to behead Haines was apparently a PR stunt designed to put the fear of Allah into their neighbors.

It's probably working.

CNN:

Haines offers brief scripted comments on the video, as does the man who kills him.

Directing his remarks at Britain, the executioner -- who sounds like the man who killed Foley and Sotloff -- says, "Your evil alliance with America, which continues to strike the Muslims of Iraq and most recently bombed the Haditha dam, will only accelerate your destruction and claim the role of the obedient lap dog.

"Cameron will only drag you and your people into another bloody and unwinnable war."

Retired Lt. Col. Rick Francona -- an Air Force veteran intelligence officer and CNN military analyst -- surmised that if ISIS planned to dissuade Britain for teaming up with the United States, the group will be disappointed.

"ISIS has just guaranteed British cooperation with the Americans on all phases of what we're going to be doing," Francona said. "... I think this is now a Western fight; it's not just a U.S. fight."

News of the gruesome killing came the same day that the 44-year-old Haines' family released a brief message to his captors through the British foreign office.

In it, the family says, "We have sent messages to you to which we have not received a reply. We are asking those holding David to make contact with us."

Haines' face became known to the world in the ISIS video, released September 2, in which he looks forward and kneels as a masked ISIS militant stands behind him.

The militant says in that video, "We take this opportunity to warn those governments who've entered this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone."

ISIS holds about 20 western hostages, including, it is believed, one American woman. Would they behead a woman? I don't think there's anything specific in the Koran that would prevent them from doing so, but it's hard to imagine anything that would be more likely to turn the rest of the world against them - even those who have expressed sympathy for their cause.

They've been averaging a beheading about every two weeks. I suppose we're going to have endure more decapitations as the war intensifies.