Michael Berg is the father of Nicholas Berg, the man whose head was cut off on videotape by Islamic terrorists in Iraq.
The Guardian published an article by Michael Berg that is amazing for it lack of moral judgment. Normally, I pass on political statements made by grieving families. This one is beyond belief.
People ask me why I focus on putting the blame for my son’s tragic and atrocious end on the Bush administration. They ask: “Don’t you blame the five men who killed him?” I have answered that I blame them no more or less than the Bush administration, but I am wrong: I am sure, knowing my son, that somewhere during their association with him these men became aware of what an extraordinary man my son was. I take comfort that when they did the awful thing they did, they weren’t quite as in to it as they might have been. I am sure that they came to admire him.
I am sure that the one who wielded the knife felt Nick’s breath on his hand and knew that he had a real human being there. I am sure that the others looked into my son’s eyes and got at least a glimmer of what the rest of the world sees. And I am sure that these murderers, for just a brief moment, did not like what they were doing.
George Bush never looked into my son’s eyes. George Bush doesn’t know my son, and he is the worse for it. George Bush, though a father himself, cannot feel my pain, or that of my family, or of the world that grieves for Nick, because he is a policymaker, and he doesn’t have to bear the consequences of his acts. George Bush can see neither the heart of Nick nor that of the American people, let alone that of the Iraqi people his policies are killing daily.
OK, let me get this straight. The man who brutally cut off his son’s head knew Nick’s humanity. While the terrorist was sawing through flesh, tendons, and bone while Nick was wailing in pain and terror, he saw a human. This was not a quick painless death. I have heard the audio. This was the most brutal event I have ever witnessed. If the terrorist saw a human, wouldn’t he have stopped the slaughter? And Michael Berg says President Bush has more blame?
Berg goes on to praise his son for being a peacemaker while implying President Bush is not. The President does not have troops in Iraq at this point to make war. President Bush has asked Congress for billions of dollars to set up a stable Iraq. The United States is supplying power and water, it has opened schools, it has set up local elections, it is building infrastructure. Is this not the actions of a peaceful nation?
Michael Berg has demonstrated the consequences of moral bankruptcy. He blames a man who is trying to bring peace to another nation while calling the men who literally slaughtered his son “human”. We are doomed when the terrorists are considered human while brutally murdering our citizens while the real peacemakers are considered evil.