When news of the Berg video hit Washington during a hearing on the prison abuse, newly energized Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum leapt up to announce, "If anyone wants to know what we're fighting and why we're fighting this war on terror, this is a good example of it." As with Lieberman's previous remarks, nobody thought to remind the senator that 9/11 and the "war on terror" have no reality-based connection to the mess we've created in Iraq. Nor did anyone mention that Berg's killers explicitly cited the humiliations of Abu Ghraib before cutting off the lad's head.
Misha has already addressed the connection between terrorists and Iraq. When it comes to the reason Berg's murderers did what they did, Abu Ghraib was just a convenient excuse. The reason they killed him was not in retaliation, but rather to shock and horrify the American people in an attempt to sway political opinion away from support for the war. They knew we'd feel bad about Abu Ghraib and they hoped to build on that. But if it hadn't happened, they would have found something else to blame it on. It may sound cold but there was nothing short of rescue that would have saved his life.
Which isn't to say Berg didn't die a horrific death. The point is that his death brings zero moral clarity to the invasion or the occupation. It does not justify some amorphous "war on terror," or dilute the meaning of Abu Ghraib. The lesson of Nick Berg is much more simple and timeless: Don't invade other people's countries and mess with their women. If you do, heads are gonna roll.
Earlier he pointed out how Berg's death was relatively quick. Now it's horrific. Only the latter is correct. I watched the video; there was nothing quick about it. Decapitation by guillotine is quick. Sawing your head off, over the space of about a minute, is not.
It is true that, by itself, Berg's murder doesn't justify the entire war on terror. However, that murder is just another thread in an entire tapestry of behavior that provides ample justification. Much larger threads, of course, include but are not limited to 9-11, the Madrid train bombings, the Bali disco bombing, and the attack on the USS Cole. Or did he forget all those? And the war on terror is not at all amorphous. It's rather concrete if you ask me. Afghanistan and Iraq are two battlefields in that war. There will be others, though most will hopefully be fought, not with weapons, but with ideas.
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