I think this barbaric burning of a pilot is a sign of the impotency ISIS feels against air power.
I personally know one of the people who helped to pull McCain out of the pond he ejected into, he's a good guy in my book. He has no quarrels admitting that after getting McCain out of the water, McCain received a good beating. In an ideal world, that's not how you treat an injured opponent...but these were civilians, whose families had been bombed, whose houses had been destroyed, who had never been taught about the Geneva Conventions, civilians who felt completely impotent against the bombers in the sky. It's not the right thing do, to beat a pilot who was part of destroying everything you call home, but I can see the anger civilians on the receiving end of air power must feel. Yet, McCain is alive and well, no one burned him alive (I am tempted to say...unlike some civilian casualties of Napalm, and not to mention, the long term effects of Agent Orange). For years, McCain has been very outspoken condemning all kinds of "enhanced interrogations" etc (a terrible euphemism, let's just call it torture), and I respect him deeply for that. No matter how inhumanely your opponents treat you, it's not an excuse to do the same. For me, burning your opponents alive is just a sign that someone is losing the battle. They're feeling impotent. Judging by the level of atrocities we've seen...ISIS is desperate.