The reaction I'm seeing in my apolitical friends and neighbors to the spate of beheadings in the middle east is a mixture of disgust, anger, and perplexion (if there's such a word).  "How can a human being do this to another human being?"  If these Islamic terrorists believe their actions will somehow change US policy in the region in a way that benefits their cause then they're fools.

The practical result of these beheadings, I believe, is the gradual dehumanization of middle east culture.  The average person viewing these atrocities doesn't hang out on political forums going through the various nuanced arguments of various actions in the middle east. No, the average person simply sees these barbaric acts as inhumane and the product of a sick possibly subhuman culture.

It isn't Americans in the middle east I fear for. It's the Islamic Arab natives of the region I increasingly fear for.

In World War II there were essentially two wars.  The was the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific.  They were fought very differently.  In Europe, the Germans were considered human. Misguided. Maybe even evil. But still human.  The Japanese, by contrast, were considered subhuman, vermin, monkeys, filth to be exterminated. These beliefs led to the use of very different tactics.  In the Pacific war, few Japanese surrendered. But what isn't talked about as much is that one of the reasons few Japanese surrendered was because the marines had little interest in taking "Jap" prisoners. If tank battles come to mind in the war in Europe, marines with flame throwers come to mind in the war against Japan.  By the end of the war, US planes were simply working towards a policy of outright extermination of the Japanese people. Such is the power when one believes their opponents lack humanity.

Democracies are like that though. Democracies perform the policies demanded by the electorate. Americans, by and large, considered the Japanese to be subhuman and the US military obliged this in its policies. 

The worse thing that could happen in the middle east would be for the Arab world to convince Americans that they're not truly human. That they believe life to be so cheap that the US becomes more free to use less humane tactics to pursue its objectives.  Suicide murderers don't do their causes any favors by demonstrating to their opponents that the Arab culture is perfectly willing to treat its youth as little more than weapon ordinance. But these latest acts in Iraq and Saudi Arabia are far worse because they demonstrate a level of grotesque brutality that is alien to most Americans. Sprinkle a few scenes of civilian support for these atrocities and you help convince millions of Americans that these people aren't really sentient beings. Do these creatures of a conscience at all? Are they so devoid of empathy that they can butcher humans as if they were animals?

Far from changing American policy towards the middle east, these actions are likely to result in the American public demanding harsher action in the war on terror. After all, if they're not even human, any action can be justified.  For the sake of the Arab world, I hope that the civilian population is able to clearly signal their disgust at these actions and work publicly and effectively towards the elimination of the perpetrators of these heinous acts.