From all accunts Nick Berg was an alright guy. He was in Iraq looking for opportunity. You know with over $50 billion being thrown around, there's lots of opportunity. He was no more an enemy of the Iraqi people than Danny Pearl was. If its a contest to decide who can be the most barbaric, the bastards that killed Danny and Nick win. They are pigs, and the sty in which they live is one of their own creation. They can't hang that one on us. Before we were ever there, Arabs and Muslims couldn't butcher each other fast enough. Religion of peace, my ass. You're not better than us, so work your way out of the victim mode and figure out a way to create a future. Are you ready to love your children more than you hate others?
We all need to accept responsibility for our extremists. You moderate Muslims own your extremists just as we own ours. If we allow our history with each other to be written by our extremists, we will not know peace in our lifetime. I preach this simple truth with the absolute hope and prayer that someone is over on your side preaching the same truth. Abu Ghraib and the execution of Nick Berg hang around each of our necks like albatrosses. They are related only in that they show both sides the other's potential for evil. You preach to your people. I'll preach to mine.
Most Americans think it's horrible what happened at Abu Ghraib. We're processing it right now, even as I type. It really is against our principles and it violates how we see ourselves. We will investigate it. We'll even make a movie about it. Sure, it'll tell it from our point of view, but we will process it. That's our way. How will you Muslims process this brutal murder of an innocent man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time? Doesn't it worry you just a little that the men who murdered Nick seemed to enjoy it just a little too much?
For all apperances, Nick Berg was an adventurer, but he was not an enemy of the Iraqi people. He saw opportunity which demonstrates more optimism than by which most Americans see the Iraqi future. Heads up, my friends, not all of us are your enemies.
