Posted on 05/12/2004 12:42:01 AM PDT by kattracks
The slaughtering of Nick Berg is one small step for terrorists and a major leap for the West’s encounter with Jihadism. The videotape, posted on the Ansar web site, was one of many horrifying acts perpetrated by the followers of Osama bin Laden. It ended up becoming a shameful benchmark in the West’s liberal media reporting.
One disaster, the behavior of few bad apples within the US armed forces, triggered a major development that will influence the way citizens will look at al Qaida's war on Americans. September 11 brought Mohammad Atta into the collective memory of this country and the international community, but May 11 will keep Abu Musab al Zarqawi in that same memory as one of the most cruel enemies of innocent civilians, anywhere. The terrorist fugitive’s name represents the title of the horrendous video showing Berg’s beheading.
Nick Berg's life was simple. Out of Philadelphia, he sought a job in a liberated Iraq, or so he thought. He trusted his government, and trusted the politicians of his country. He traveled to help Iraqis and establish a personal link with Iraq's civil society. But he was obstructing the spread of Jihad. He became a lonely Kafir (infidel), walking on the path of hordes of doom. As in the middle ages, he was on the wrong side of dar el Harb (the war zone as conceived by the Islamists). And as such, he was slaughtered by the long sword of al Zarqawi. And the pictures of his murder will circle the world – and they deserve to overshadow the Abu Ghraib photos.
In the detention center that grabbed world attention, and ignited a self- whipping crusade in the US, men were shown naked, piled up and humiliated. But American justice is marching through this development until it prevails. The rights of detainees are sacred in America, even if they are terrorists. Their lives are to be protected, even if they have taken others. But at the Abu Ghraib of Jihad, innocents are slaughtered at will -- and at the discretion of unholy warriors. In the al Zarqawi "detention centers," there are no laws, there are no codes, and there is no humanity. It's the lowest end of human behavior.
Unfortunately, some among us may have fuelled the blood fiesta that was shown on the web site. It is not the incidents at Abu Ghreeb, but the portrayal of them that served as a cause for killings. Indeed, many liberal and anti-American voices from this end of the world, while excessively assessing the so-called impact of the Iraqi soldiers abuse by their guards, declared that the "reactions will be violent and bloody." In other words, they morally legitimized bloody responses by expecting them to happen. And when the slaughter of Berg took place and was posted online, these same voices rushed to establish a moral equality between Abu Ghraib and the savage beheading of an innocent young man. But no such equality exists.
Many American politicians and public commentators rushed to expect the Arab world to unleash boundless violence as "a result of the humiliation felt at Abu Ghraib." While investigation was not saturated yet, nor psychological evaluation rendered, the anti-Iraq liberation camp decided to exploit the behavior of a few bad apples against the whole enterprise of liberation. Not satisfied with hearings and with the grilling of officials and the projection of swift justice, this camp wanted more political blood. In fact, by subverting the essence of the issue - from justice to politics - they drew real human blood. It was the blood of Nick Berg.
By projecting "the immense reaction of the Arab world" to the Abu Ghraib incidents, these individuals projected American fear and instability. To start with, the assessment that all people in the Middle East misunderstood America and despised its image as result of the photos was wrong.
At a media summit at the State Department last Friday, and while Secretary Rumsfeld was under heavy shelling in Congress, US officials learned from two dozen Arab and Mideast media people that "many opinions by many segments, had different concerns in the region."
Those who are anti-American - including al Qaida sympathizers - will take the pictures to the zenith of exploiting hatred. One Mideast participant told the Foreign policy officers "if you tell those radicals that the Arab world will react violently, the Jihadists will react on behalf of Arabs and Muslims, but without their consent." Many participants, from different religious and ethnic background, warned US officials not to give the terrorists meat for their diet. Unfortunately, statements fused across the country and further endangered Americans around the world.
In reality, most people in the Middle East understood that American values vanished in that jail, but that they were still the moral tenets of the US initiative in the greater Middle East. Apart from al Jazeera and the Jihadi web sites, the common sense people knew that. Many among them felt embarrassed for the US, and eventually for themselves.
For Kurds, mainstream Shiites and democratic Sunnis, it remained clear: the weakening of the US role would be a catalyst for the return of Baathism and the surge of Wahhabism. To them, Abu Ghraib is a passage in a much wider chapter: the transition to sovereignty. Iraqis understood that, but not the carriers of petite politics on these shores. The latter didn't know - or worse, perhaps they did - that exploiting Abu Ghraib for their own anti-American agenda was literally playing with the devil, and the life of innocent American workers in Iraq. By developing a crisis of so-called immorality in the American system, the senders of such signs created a systemic problem. They encouraged the Jihadists to further terrorize the country.
Abu Musab al Zarqawi has ordered the kidnappings of Americans - and others- months ago. Before and after Fallujah’s last episode, the terrorists resorted to "collect" the victims. On one of their audio web sites, they called them "assembled sheep." (Tajmeeh al khawareef.) Whether Abu Ghraib happened or not, al Qaida was building its human ammunition depot. These “assembled sheep” were to be "sacrificed" at will. Some fled with bravery, others remained. Nick Berg didn't have the luck. These "human sheep", according to a speech by Abu al Barra on Al Ansar's web site, are to be slaughtered when time will come. One by one, or collectively, they are Jihad's prisoners of unholy war. To be returned, exchanged, used for propaganda material -- or beheaded. It is at the will of the captors.
When the scandal of Iraqi soldiers abuse exploded in the US, al Zarqawi must have listened carefully to the "debate." He was certainly interested by the messages he heard. "The Arab world will explode in violence" screamed liberal politicians before concluding that "America would pay the price," and that it must sacrifice one of its executive leaders, in this case Secretary Rumsfeld.
The greater mistake of these politicians and media pundits was to legitimize that nightmare in the minds of the perpetrators. Even if the bloody scenario was roaming the mind of al Zarqawi and others, American voices certified to al Qaida, that this is expected, and worse, that it would cause tremendous pain within infidel ranks. If there was one hesitation in the mind of the terrorists not to proceed with a slaughter, this straw broke the back of the camel.
Berg's ordeal was not as direct result of Abu Ghraib. Al Qaida has little to react when prisoners are mistreated. These are collateral damages. The big picture is what interests Osama bin Laden -- and that is to weaken and humiliate the US and to prevent the rise of an Arab democracy. Al Zarqawi stops in front of nothing to achieve chaos in the region: attacks in Baghdad, Rihad and Amman. Moreover, he listens very well to American voices. Whenever they show him their weaknesses, he responds mercilessly. Hence, to all those who are trying to link the death of an innocent Philadelphia man to reactions to ugly pictures from Abu Ghraib, the answer is yes. The link exists, but not the one immediately thought of.
The photos of Abu Ghraib were used by some in the US to stir political instability. These political opportunists have crossed the line by projecting – and legitimizing - reactions to come. The terrorists heard them well, and as they mastered the March 11 Madrid bombing, they beheaded Berg.
Adding another danger to the initial one, those who legitimized the answer-to-come are now creating a moral balance between Abu Ghraib and the beheading. As a result, they are falling into al Qaida's trap -- and causing additional bloodshed in Iraq. That's how innocent Americans are paying the price of dreadful mistakes – perhaps deliberate ones – perpetrated by other Americans.
Walid Phares is a professor of MiddleEast Studies and a terrorism analyst. He can be reached at Phares@walidphares.com
Walid Phares is a Professor of Middle East Studies and Religious Conflict and a Terrorism expert with MSNBC.
Islam, 36 years of peace:
1968 Robert Kennedy assassinated
1972 Munich Olympics Sep-5,1972 (Black September)
1976 Entebbe Hostage Crisis, June 27, 1976
1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, Nov. 4, 1979 444 days
1979 Grand Mosque Seizure, Nov 20,1979
1981 Assassination of Egyptian President, Oct 6,1981
1982 Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister, Sept 14, 1982
1983 Bombing of US Embassy in Beirut6, April 18,1983
1983 Bombing of Maring Barricks, Beruit, Oct 23,1983
1984 Hizballah Restaurant Bombing, April 12,1984
1985 Egyptian Airliner Hijacking, Nov 23,1985
1985 Rome Airport murders
1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacked, U.S. Navy diver murdered
1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, Homacidal maniac lived in saddams Iraq
1986 Aircraft Bombing in Greece, March 30, 1986
1988 Pan Am 747 Flight 103 Bombing, Lockerbie, 100's murdered
1988 Berlin Discoteque Bombing, Dec 21,1988
1992 Bombing in Israeli Embassy in Argentina, March 17,1992
1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr., April 14,1993
1993 First World Trade Center bombing, February 26th, 7 Killed, Hundreds injured.
1994 Air France Hijacking, Dec 24,1994
1995 Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan, Mar 8,1995
1995 Saudi Military Installation Attack, Nov 13, 1995
1995 Kashmiri Hostage taking, July 4,1995
1996 Khobar Towers attack
1996 Sudanese Missionarys Kidnapping, Aug 17,1996
1996 Paris Subway Explosion, Dec 3,1996
1997 Israeli Shopping Mall Bombing, Sept 4, 1997
1997 Yemeni Kidnappings, Oct 30,1997
1998 Somali Hostage taking crisis, April 15,1998
1998 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Peru, Jan 15, 1998
1998 U.S. Kenya Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1998 U.S. Tanzania Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1999 Plot to blow up Space Needle (thwarted)
2000 USS Cole attacked, many U.S. Navy sailors murdered
2000-2003 Intifada against Israel - 100's dead and injured
2000 Manila Bombing, Dec 30,2000
2001 4 Commercial airliners hijacked, 250+ murdered
2001 World Trade Center attacked, 2800+ murdered
2001 Flight 93 murders
2001 Pentagon attacked, 180+ murdered
2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and murdered
2002 Philippines American missionary, Filipino nurse killed
2002 July 4, El Al attack Los Angeles LAX, several murdered
2002 Bali bombing - 200 dead, 300 injured
2002 Yemen, French Oil Tanker attacked
2002 Marines attacked / murdered in Kuwait
2002 Washington D.C. sniper
2002 Russian Theater attacked, 100+ dead
2002 Nigerian riots against Miss World Pageant, 200 dead, dozens injured
2002 Mombasa Hotel Attacked, 12 dead, dozens injured
2002 Israeli Boeing 757 attacked by missiles, fortunately no one injured
2002 August Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 12 dead, dozens injured.
2003 Rusian concert bombing
2003 Phillipines airport and market bombing
2003 Foiled SAM plot in the USA
2003 UN Baghdad HQ Bombing
Others??....."you're either with us or against us".
The liberals are dead-set against the continued existence of the US --- they're just as eager to bring down this country as the Islamics.
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