...Or would you rather wait until it's "outside your front door?"

Ramblings' Journal / Project 21 ^ | 5.11.04 | Michael King

[mhking]

Nick Berg owned a business in suburban Philadelphia. His dad, his brother and his sister live in the Philadelphia area. He was a contractor who went to Iraq to help out in the rebuilding of the infrastructure of that war-torn nation.

Nick Berg's face was seen today on a web-site known to belong to Al Qaeda. Berg was sitting in front of a group of masked thugs, who forced him to give his name, then promptly decapitated him.

And we're stuck listening to whining and crying about Iraqis being humiliated.

Perky Katie Couric keeps trying to tell us how evil the Bush Administration is every morning; Snotty Peter Jennings makes sure you know the same thing as you eat dinner each evening.

Nancy Pelosi screeches the same thing with all the presence of a mynah bird. John "Ketchup Boy" Kerry fusses about it -- at least between sessions of bitching about how pundits, commentators and other politicians need to leave his wife alone (when I hear Ketchup Boy try to play tough, I keep seeing Robert Conrad from the old Eveready commercials -- you remember the ones, with the battery on his shoulder, daring you to knock it off).

But none of them will reserve the same level or intensity of anger for Nick Berg's life.

Oh, we'll hear Al Franken and Whoopi Goldberg make light of Berg's death all over the place; we'll see postings from Democratic Underground and retardedly scrawled cartoons from Ted Rall insist that Berg deserved what he got because he worked for "eeeeevil" Halliburton or some other defense contracting firm -- after all, if he's associated with the defense industry in any way, shape or form, he's gotta be evil too, right?

My God, a man's life was taken by barbaric animals! Animals who have no concept of the meaning of the words "honor" or "integrity." No idea what "freedom" really means. "Truth" and "justice" are just some misbegotten notion to them.

And we're left with people like Jesse Jackson insisting that since a few prisoners in custody were harassed by their jailers that we are all of a sudden worse than the cretins who took Nick Berg's life.

Hand-wringers like Tom Daschle will show up on the Sunday morning talking head shows to try to tell us that we deserve anything we get, because we, as a nation, didn't do what the United Nations wanted us to do; because we didn't do what the Democrats on the Hill and across the nation wanted us to do.

What do you say to Nick Berg's family? Huh?

Oh, I know -- you'll want to lay the blame for his death at President Bush's feet.

Never one to place blame where it truly lies.

President Bush didn't stand over Nick Berg with a mask on. Donald Rumsfeld didn't raise a large knife over Berg's head and cut it off -- mind you, yelling "Allah Akbar" in the process. The Republican Party didn't plaster this on their web site, claiming that this fate awaited all other Americans.

But the liberals in this nation are going to place the blame squarely at the feet of those of us on the conservative side of the fence. "If we hadn't gone to war in the first place, none of this would have happened," is what they'll say.

If we hadn't gone to war, would Washington or New York or Los Angeles be a smoking crater right now? Huh?

A new CNN survey touted on the news this morning, indicates that more than 50% of Americans believe that the Iraqi war was not "worth it." How many more Americans' deaths will it take before it becomes worth it?

To hear John Kerry tell it, we would do better to pick up our toys and go home; a veritable modern-day Monroe Doctrine, if you will. Are you ready to wall off America from the rest of the world? Are you ready for the bad guys to come knocking on your door?

After all, the city council in Hamtrammack, MI has already given the OK for the Islamic Call to Prayer to be pronounced on loudspeakers in that sleepy little Detroit suburb. How much longer will it be before the city council in Hamtrammack "encourages" people to go to the mosque on a daily basis?

Bill Cosby unwittingly came up with the best analogy to this in his classic routine, Lights Out: "It's in your home state...[bump-bump, bump-bump]...It's outside your front door...[bump-bump, bump-bump]...and it's going to eat you up!"

You want to stop it now? Or wait until it's "outside your front door?" [bump-bump, bump-bump]

[bitt]

from foxnews.com (they also have an edited version of the video)

"Berg was in Baghdad from late December to Feb. 1 and had returned to Iraq in March. He didn't find any work and planned again to return home on March 30, but his daily communications home stopped on March 24. He later told his parents he was jailed by Iraqi officials at a checkpoint in Mosul.

"He was arrested and held without due process," Michael Berg told the Daily Local News of West Chester. "By the time he got out, the whole area was inflamed with violence."

On March 31, the FBI interviewed Berg's parents in West Chester. Jerri Williams, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia FBI office, told The Philadelphia Inquirer the agency had been "asked to interview the parents regarding Mr. Berg's purpose in Iraq."

On April 5, the Bergs filed a lawsuit in federal court in Philadelphia, contending that their son was being held illegally by the U.S. military. The next day Berg was released. He told his parents he hadn't been mistreated.

Then they didn't hear from him after April 9."

[GaltMeister]

Michael, this needs to be forwarded to every idiot congressman and reporter that ever said "We have no business in Iraq; Al Qaeda is not in Iraq, and Iraq has nothing to do with Al Qaeda."

Think they will start to see why GW widened the war to Hussein's Iraq?

[some guy in the mountains]

...Or would you rather wait until it's "outside your front door?"

I at first thought the thread was about torture being outside my front door.

My question is: would our torturing of Iraqi prisoners prevent this from happening?

[MizSterious]

Good column. You expressed a lot of what I'm feeling--but haven't yet found (printable) words to express.

[HungarianGypsy]

This country is heading for another Civil War.
It may be. But most liberals don't have guns.

[Paved Paradise]

I had not heard a thing of this until this post. Wow. I'm so sad but the media won't make much of it, this is true.

[HungarianGypsy]

I forgot to add that a liberals weapon of choice is just to nag everyone to death.

[B.O. Plenty]

It's all adding up....the muslum attacks in the past(olympics, beruit...et al)...911...Daniel Pearl....Madrid....and today...the beheading of Nick Berg...

I wonder how much more will be needed to finally convince our President to wage a proper war on radical Islam...but at some point, the p.c. "war" must come to an end, and real hostilities begin. The American people deserve better than having to listen to whining from the left about how mean the U.S. military is to a bunch of murdering thugs....probably most of them with American blood on their hands.....and ALL of them would if they could.

So, how much more are we to endure. Will 5000 more dead do the trick?....10000?.....1000000?.....

[mhking]

My question is: would our torturing of Iraqi prisoners prevent this from happening?

Are you saying that torture should be military policy? Because it is not now, regardless of what the talking heads on television and on the Hill are trying to tell you.

[OpusatFR]

They intend to wipe us out. Plain and simple. They don't care who they kill. I don't care if it Hamas and Hizbollah killing 4 little girls and their pregnant mom, Islamofascists beheading Daniel Pearl and this man, or Baathists running around firing RPGs.

I got it. They want us dead. Can the left get it?

[CatoRenasci]

Yes, but they're immune from bullets in their armor of moral righteousness.....

[4everontheRight]

Good article!!
Why is it that the liberals won't allow Americans to be outraged over 9/11 or the killing of our contractors or our soldiers?? Why are other countries always allowed to have outrage about America but we can't have outrage over what other countries and peoples do to us?????

[some guy in the mountains]

Are you saying that torture should be military policy? Because it is not now, regardless of what the talking heads on television and on the Hill are trying to tell you.

I'm asking how us continuing to abuse\mistreat\torture prisoners would prevent or not prevent stuff like this from happening again.

[mhking]

I'm asking how us continuing to abuse\mistreat\torture prisoners would prevent or not prevent stuff like this from happening again.

They are mutually exclusive. Torture will not encourage more, nor will it prevent more.

The cases are akin to comparing apples and oranges.

[darkwing104]

I'm asking how us continuing to abuse\mistreat\torture prisoners would prevent or not prevent stuff like this from happening again.

Sad to say it won't, they are trying to imtimidate us but only managed to piss us off even more. They probably believe if they do this enough we would cower like Spain. A few libs will want to surrender but I think the islamists underestimated American resolve.

[some guy in the mountains]

They are mutually exclusive. Torture will not encourage more, nor will it prevent more.

I'm glad to hear it. So thent this even cannot be blamed on people like me whining that the abuse of the Iraqi prisoners was wrong.

[Christian4Bush]

I live in Los Angeles, California. I woke up this morning to the sounds of my alarm clock (not an air-raid siren or the ack-ack of machine guns).

I brushed my teeth with water that didn't make me sick or kill me. I packed my gym bag while standing upright (not on the floor dodging bullets).

I calmly walked to my truck, in the cool of a morning that was gray with clouds (not smoke). I drove to the end of my street without having to pass through a military checkpoint (military or adversary). I didn't drive past tanks, soldiers, cars on fire, or mosques on every corner...just "normal Los Angeles traffic".

I arrived at work (in a high rise building), worked out in my gym, and reported to a great job at a great desk, with great co-workers, able to earn a living, of which the government gets a small percentage.

All of the above, and so much more, is possible because of these brave men and women who serve our country night and day, who stay vigilant and determined to make sure that stuff like 9-11 does not happen on our shores, nor in our skies, again.

Someday the elites, who seem to have everything and still hate President Bush and any conservative leader for it, will realize this. I'll not hold my breath, though.

[mhking]

So thent this even cannot be blamed on people like me whining that the abuse of the Iraqi prisoners was wrong.

You won't hear that from me -- as I said in the piece, blame belongs at the feet of the predators who are in that video.

Now, I will bitch about whiners like you tying our collective hands to prevent us from dealing with this kind of stuff....

[Ohioan]

A new CNN survey touted on the news this morning, indicates that more than 50% of Americans believe that the Iraqi war was not "worth it." How many more Americans' deaths will it take before it becomes worth it?

This is really a rather strange question. Certainly American deaths, trying to rebuild Iraq, will hardly make what has gone before more worthwhile. Such deaths will never make it "worth it," if it is not already worth it.

Frankly, I think the Administration is entitled to the benefit of the doubt on the decision to invade Iraq. But, as I have repeatedly posted, trying to change the Iraqi culture is folly, and expending American lives and resources in pursuit of such folly, is tantamount to strategic madness. (See Iraq.)

Up until now, my concern has been focused on two facts: (1) that our real enemies, the Internationalists (Al Quaida) who refuse to recognize borders, would use our appearance of meddling with Arab culture, for recruiting purposes; and (2) that there is no justification for expending our resources for such meddling. Frankly, the events in the past week or so suggest another very, very dangerous effect, and that is that while the brilliant initial execution of the War would have served to boost military morale, and draw high quality people to our military services; the protracted pursuit of folly is now beginning to have precisely the opposite effect.

That is a very serious concern. It is not the one that the Leftist critics of the War will focus on; but it should be one that is very, very important for Conservatives critics of the post-conquest policy to consider.

William Flax

[Ladysmith]

Hear! Hear!!