Displaced Anger

I am angry. I’m feeling such tremendous rage that I find it hard to put it into words. It is the kind of seething anger that makes your jaw hurt from clenching.

I just read the news about the American who was slaughtered in Iraq. That’s right. Slaughtered. Actually, he was beheaded, on video no less. Just like Daniel Pearle. The video, titled "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American," shows the murder of Nick Berg, an American small business owner went to help rebuild communication antennas in Iraq. As the camera rolled, Berg is heard saying, "My name is Nick Berg. My father's name is Michael. My mother's name is Suzanne, I have a brother and sister, David and Sara. I live in ... Philadelphia."

After making a statement that this was revenge for the treatment for the prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, the men pulled the man on his side and thrust a large knife to his neck. A scream sounded as the men cut his head off, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" - or "god is great." (I personally put “god” in lower case since this obviously is not my god).

They then held the head out before the camera.

According to the Guardian of London, the executioners then said, "How can a free Muslim sleep well as he sees Islam slaughtered and its dignity bleeding, and the pictures of shame and the news of the devilish scorn of the people of Islam - men and women - in the prison of Abu Ghraib?"

Aside from the fact that Muslims do far worse to their own people than then the guards at Abu Ghraib, who really believes that this act of murder on an innocent, non-military man really is the moral equivalent to undressing a combatant and making fun of him?

Look, I admit that what the guards at Abu Ghraib did was horrible and I believe that those who were responsible should be severely punished. However, what was done to Nick Berg only shows the unbelievable depths these people will go to kill our people. They do not need an excuse! They didn’t need one in 2001 when they killed 3,000 people in New York, nor did they need one when they murdered Tali Hatuel and her daughters. The only reason they are doing this is that they hate. They hate what freedom means. They hate what America is and they hate Israel. Nothing will satisfy this hatred until the last American, Israeli, Brit or whoever is not a Muslim receives the same fate as Nick Berg.

Yet, there are those on “our” side who do not agree. Let me rephrase that, there are those on our side who do not want to agree. Whether they are afraid or just in denial, many around the world feel that if we just negotiated with them, or just gave them what they want, they’ll not bother us anymore. There are people in government, our government, that say that WE are at fault and that WE caused this war.

Osama Bin Ladin says the same thing. He blames America for sending in troops to Saudi Arabia. Of course, we sent them in because the Saudi government asked us to. We went into Kuwait in order to remove Saddam Hussein from annihilating them. We went into Bosnia because the Muslims were being slaughtered. How is it our fault?

These same people felt Saddam Hussein posed no threat. Perhaps he did not imminently, at least not for the US, however he clearly threatened Israel and certainly abused his people shamelessly. How soon would we have to wait before had the capacity to threaten the entire region with nuclear or biological weapons? We know he had them and we know he was trying to develop them further.

We learned today what many should have learned a long time ago. These people are animals. They are barbaric and they have absolutely no regard or value of life. The late Abdel Aziz Rantisi, co-founder of Hamas, once said, “the Zionists (referring to Israel and America) are weak because they value life. We are strong because we value death.”

While we punish our citizens for making fun of combatant prisoners, they brutally execute a guy who was there to help them build a better life.

While too many excuse the obvious, we must wake up and realize it. The war that we have been waging, a war we didn't start, is a war for the value of life. President Bush stated it quite well when he said, “You are either with us or against us”. You are either on the side of those who value life or you are with those that value death.

Nick Berg valued life. Do you?