Blame me all you want - my thoughts on the Berg video

[ps1074]

First let me say I am shocked. It is beyond me how a human being can do anything so ... unspeakable. I am lost of words. My heart goes to his family.

Second, where was the outrage last month when the 4 contractors were burned alive and parts of their bodies dragged through the Baghdad streets? 4 lives were lost then, 1 live is lost now. Cynical? May be... It was merely a tenth of the hysteria we see on the media right now.

Third, there is a WAR going on dammit. No matter what the Chimp says the war is far from over. It's not a picnic. People DIE at war, INNOCENT people die at war. KIDS die at war... Have you seen a video of 3 or 4 or 5 year old kid blown up by a bomb? No you haven't. And I doubt you will see any.

May be all americans need to see this video to realize what war looks like. Then may be, just may be they will have a second thought before jumping in joy when the war drums start beating.

This guy had a choice to go to Iraq or not. Most of the innocent victims of this war had no such a choice.

[doni_georgia]

1. Exactly

People are outraged because the video is there for public consumption. War is horrible. Killing by beheading, or by bullets, or by bombs is still killing. If war could be played out on a playing field like a sporting event it would be bad enough, but this war is being played out in city streets, neighborhoods, and villages, where innocent people are caught in the crossfire. Nick Berg was an innocent. He went there, according to his parents to try to help with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure. He died like countless Iraqi civilians - a pawn in this game of war. We'll learn of more atrocities of war after the conflict is over, but these atrocities are being played out each and every day. The military calls it collateral damage. I call it senseless killing. The questions shouldn't be "how did this happen?" The question ought to be "Why with all we know about the horrors of war, do we continue to think war is the answer to world problems?" This war in Iraq is making the world less safe for Americans. We are more hated now than we have ever been. We can expect more Nick Berg's both in Iraq and around the globe. The murders do not see the Nick Bergs of the world as individual humans worthy of dignity and life. No, the Nick Bergs represent America. When we decided to treat Iraqi prisoners like animals and deny their humanity and their dignity, we opened ourselves up to these kinds of acts. They will grow more frequent as the war continues. They will most likely continue after the war ends. The world has gone to hell, and we played a part in it.

[KG]

2. ultimately, nick berg chose poorly

he went to a violent, dangerous place where, as an USian, he was not welcome or wanted.

i feel very little sympathy for the fate of carpet-baggers in iraq.

or anywhere else in the world, for that matter.

[OKNancy]

6. I feel sympathy

the more I read about Berg. He was a naive do-gooder. This wasn't his first expedition. Earlier he had gone to Ghana to teach villagers how to make bricks out of minimal equipment. He gave all his possessions before returning from Ghana.

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. A life is a life, and I will never rejoice over the loss of one...I will

indeed feel sympathy. He didn't deserve to die like that.

[OKNancy]

3. One point

the four contractors...as I recall their vehicle was shot up first, then burned. I'm not so sure they were burned alive. They did desecrate the bodies, but they were already dead. Not excusing it at all. Every dead American and Iraqi is just as dead no matter how it happens. It's a sick, sick mess.

[Ganja Ninja]

4. I can't figure out what the hell Berg was thinking.

He went to Iraq on his own with no job. It sounds pretty crazy to me. Why didn't someone try to stop him? What would you do if a friend or family member said to you "I'm headed over to Iraq to see if I can find a job."

[hang a left]

8. And he went alone. That is a little nuts if you asked me. n/t

[vi5]

5. Exactly....listing the names of soldiers who died is bad?

but airing this and talking about this is somehow o.k. because it whips the people into a bloodlust frenzy.

I feel for this guy and the 4 who died in Fallujah. But I also feel for the soldiers who died and the Iraqis whose names will never be known by most americans in whose name this is being done.

[izzie]

7. I read about out-rage about the 4 men. Where I do not read it .......

is all the every day people killed and hardly a wood said. That is where the hate gets right to the people. It would you also if they bombed your home and killed your kids. When do we get mad at that? Their deaths out number the US army and WTC and what did they have to do with it?

[kiahzero]

10. Remember Fallujah?

Second, where was the outrage last month when the 4 contractors were burned alive and parts of their bodies dragged through the Baghdad streets?

We seiged a city over that... are you suggesting there's more outrage now?

[Bridget Burke]

11. About 600 Iraqis died because of the Fallujah attack.....

I remember reading about it, but I'm sure their relatives remember it quite clearly.

[kiahzero]

14. Exactly

So, how exactly is the outrage over this topping the outrage over the mercenaries?

[BonjourUSA]

12. The cultural shock

How many americans know that a sexual abuse is worse than the death for an Arab Muslim.

And for people in the Bagdad streets, the decapitation is an under-response to the "abuse" of Iraqis in the American jails.

[TahitiNut]

15. Good point. We face not only asymmetrical warfare but ...

... asymmetrical mores. The Islamic sense of personal and cultural 'honor' is apparently far more developed than the secular Western (American) sense of 'honor.'

For example, we in the US have seen virtually nothing in our media about the prisoners who were subjected to the bottoms of guards boots, including the prisoner who died of broken bones in his neck from being stomped. We get the occasional glimpse and reference to the extreme insult - like when the Iraqis slapped the fallen statue of Saddam with the bottom of their shoes. It must be almost inconceiveably insulting to Iraqis that guards are putting their boots on prisoners.

[BlueEyedSon]

13. 3 points

1. There was plenty of outrage, where the hell were you?

2. The four "civilian contractors" (i.e. mercenaries) were killed in Falluja, not Baghdad. They were armed and traveling in a Humvee, basically an extension of and, indistinguishable from, the US military forces. Unless Berg was "undercover" he was not in a military role.

3. The war is lost. There is NO WAY for us to achieve our goals in Iraq.

[BonjourUSA]

16. Chronicle of the ordinary hate.

Perhaps have you already heard this event which doesn't seem to be different from some other ones in other Iraqi cities.

In the center of Al Dulu'iya, Mihzir Hussein (48), boss of a plant, comes back home. He drives amid an American column of armored vehicles and heavy trucks. Beside him, his daughter (18) who hold his niece (2) on her knees. On the rear seat, his son (12). His car is BMW of black color and this type of car makes the American soldiers very nervous because it's often used by kamikases for shooting from its open roof. Mihzir Hussein wants to get out from the convoy and goes slowly toward the right side of the street. Immediately a truck bounds from the column and cruhes the rear of the car, a soldier fires. A bullet kills him, her niece and his son are seriously wounded by the smashed roof. After a methodic inspection, a second truck completely mashes the car. The witnesses want to talk to the officer but the soldiers point their guns and he yells : "Back! nothing to comment".

Al Dulu'iya is the twin city of Falluja, in the center of the Sunnit triangle and the fief of Al Juburi (the greatest iraqi tribe).


http://archives.nouvelobs.com/recherche/article.cfm?id=129123&mot=la%20sale%20guerre&mm=01&mm2=12&aa=2004&n_mag=0,8&num=2061&m2=8

[Oddman]

17. Shouldn't our government be looking out for our best interests?

Instead of encouraging private contractors to go to Iraq to fill the void left by a depleted armed forces our government should be demanding that all private US citizens leave Iraq immediately!

Why doesn't our government care about our citizens???


As President Bush put it, they are an exceptional "few bad apples"
whose actions "do not reflect the nature of our country."