NICK BERG'S MURDER (A+ Op-ed)

NY Post ^

[Barney Gumble]

What cruel, sick bastards.

Indeed, you can't get much more barbaric than the filmed beheading of 26-year-old Nick Berg that splashed across a terrorist group's Web site yesterday.

In case the world needed a reminder of why America is waging its War on Terror, it got one yesterday.

It's hard to imagine the terror that must have filled Berg in those final moments as he realized his hooded captors really were going to kill him.

It wasn't enough that they slaughtered the young Philadelphia businessman like a sheep and held his severed head aloft as if it were a trophy. No, they filmed the whole thing for the world to see.

Soldiers don't behave like that.

Only cowards and thugs do.

Now it's time to ratchet up the response to this war.

Forget Abu Ghraib.

The abuse committed there by a handful of soldiers was not typical; nor is it acceptable.

But the beheading of Nick Berg is par for the course for al Qaeda.

Of course, the terrorists of Muntada al-Ansar, an al Qaeda offshoot, claimed they were acting in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib abuses.

Bull. There were no known abuses at Abu Ghraib when Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and Italian hostage Fabrizio Quattrocchi were murdered by Islamic terrorists.

And the events at Abu Ghraib had not yet come to light when frenzied crowds in Fallujah burned and mutilated the bodies of four Americans and strung them from a bridge.

No, the massacre of Nick Berg had nothing to do with Abu Ghraib.

Instead, this slaying was about the war against the West in general - and America, in particular. Indeed, the beheading may have been carried out personally by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a top aide of Osama bin Laden .

Some people - some Americans - have forgotten about 9/11.

That attack should have been enough to justify all-out war. But the hand-wringing over the war in Iraq (news - web sites) - and over even the modest steps America took to defend itself, like the Patriot Act - suggests that folks truly have lost sight of what the war is about.

Yesterday they got a shocking reminder. And now they know: This war cannot be waged with half-measures.

It can end only with the total annihilation of those who practice butchery and barbarism. Those who have set as their goal the destruction of America.

There is no negotiating with such people. There can be no compromise with those who mean to destroy us.

Yesterday, the White House promised to "pursue those responsible and bring them to justice." That's the least of it.

America has to come out swinging.

And not stop until every last one of the savage thugs is dead.

If that means a resumption of major combat in Iraq, so be it.

Would it mean another division or so of combat troops to get the job done?

Turn to our garrisons in Europe, or Korea, to get them.

In sufficient numbers to get the job done.

To hell with political sensitivities in the region.

To hell with negotiating with radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf and the Sunni insurgents in Fallujah.

To hell with handing Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) over to Iraqis, as some want to do, and risking some reverse - perverse - kangaroo trial that results in his survival.

Evil, cutthroat terrorists need to be eradicated.

Let's face it: This is a job that's going to take overwhelming - yes, brutal - force. There is simply no "nice" or painless way to accomplish this.

As yesterday's slaughter showed (yet again), the enemy is bound by no moral compunctions.

America won't go that far.

But it had better steel it's backbone and get ready to fight like it means it.

It's the only way to win this war.

[Amelia]

Interesting editorial.

[4CJ]

To hell with political sensitivities in the region. To hell with negotiating with radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Najaf and the Sunni insurgents in Fallujah. To hell with handing Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) over to Iraqis, as some want to do, and risking some reverse - perverse - kangaroo trial that results in his survival. Evil, cutthroat terrorists need to be eradicated.

We have a moral obligation to hasten their meeting with Hell.

[livius]

America has to come out swinging.

And not stop until every last one of the savage thugs is dead.

America needs an editorial like this in every paper in the country.

[DustyMoment]

I respect your opinion, but disagree totally. In any war, even one in which the odds appear to be overwhelmingly against you, you can defeat your enemy by making him lose his will to fight.

In this war, there is only one way to do that - we must treat the terrorists to a vision of horror that exceeds anything they can omagine or perpetrate. If we start worrying about our western more's any taking innocent lives, we might as well pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan now, and start getting on our knees 5 times a day to sing about "Allah akhbar".

Our beliefs in compassion, civility and humanity are the very weapons that the terrorists are employing against us. They know that we will get wrapped up in hand wringing over whether this Muslim is good and that Muslim is bad. Let's look at the bigger picture - how many in the "arab street" are expressing their outrage over these acts of savagery and barbarism in the name of Islam?

That's the same number of "moderate" Muslims there are in the world. I don't like climbing into the gutter with these vermin any more than the next person, but that is what they understand. They are rooted in 13th Century barbarism and lack the ability to comprehend our compassion and desire to spare innocent lives. As long as we are unable or unwilling to truly shock and awe these barbarians into abandoning their "religion" of murder, slavery, oppression, hate and barbarism, all we are doing is, literally, throwing Christians to the lions. It's time to take off the gloves and stop pretending.

[Diogenesis]

AMERICANS HANGING ON A BRIDGE IN FALLUJA BY ISLAMIC SUBHUMANS

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TORTURE OF AMERICANS BY ISLAMIC SUBHUMANS

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AMERICANS BEHEADED BY ISLAMIC SUBHUMANS

THIS LATEST BEHEADING WAS DIRECTLY DUE TO SCHEMING DAN RATHER AND PROTERRORIST CBS.

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PARTIAL LIST OF ISLAMIC TERRORIST ACTIVITIES

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, Billions
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
on and on and on and on their terrorism has gone .........

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THE REAL DEAL

ISLAMIC TERRORISTS MURDERING AMERICANS AT A RATE OF 3000 INNOCENTS PER HOUR

Where is the outrage at CBS? It is ONLY for the terrorists.

GOTTA HEAR THIS (911 in sound ~ 3 megabytes)

=====> (click here, or download with right mouse button)

[Brit_Guy]

Dusty,

I agree that you can defeat your enemy by making them lose their will to fight - the point I was trying to make was the complexities of guerilla war where you are never sure who the enemy really is make this tactic difficult to execute.

We are not at war with the state of Iraq. We've been there, done that, broke their will, and crushed them. War won.

We are now at war with a hotch potch of small groups of terrorists, some co-ordinated, some not, some religious nutters, some ba'athist reminants, some plain old gangsters, who live amongst a population who we are NOT at war with.

The test of who wins a guerilla war is in who the population feels affinity with more. If we bomb fallujah those not currently involved with the insurgents who loose family members will hate you and I, as much as you and I hated islamic radicalism every day since 9/11.

Cool heads. Target the leadership, the cells. Show patience and pride in restraint. Show moral authority, but never show weakness in resolve. This thing can be won, but there is no quick way to get there. Unlike the overthrow of Saddams state, this second war against the terrorist elements is one for special forces and intelligence, not for conventional armour and air power.

[Shane]

Great post and the Op-Ed is right on target.As I posted in another response - "It's surely a blood cult, a death cult" You are absolutely correct. It is a cult, not a religion. It is long past the time to take the gloves off and purge the earth of these despicable barbarians. The Bush Administration has GOT to stop this "political correctness" approach to the war. We will NOT win the hearts and minds of the Islamic people, the only thing that they understand is strength and supreme power, and we must demonstrate that the USA has the power to obliterate them. We are either in this thing to win or we are doomed

[ksen]

When we take them out - the mob will see reason.

A mob will never see reason.

[DustyMoment]

Cool heads. Target the leadership, the cells. Show patience and pride in restraint. Show moral authority, but never show weakness in resolve. This thing can be won, but there is no quick way to get there. Unlike the overthrow of Saddams state, this second war against the terrorist elements is one for special forces and intelligence, not for conventional armour and air power.

Again, we'll just have to agree to disagree, here. Ordinarily, I might agree that we should take the high moral road and allow the "cool heads" to prevail. However, that philosophy only kills more Americans. Trying to sort out the "good" Muslims from the "bad" Muslims only kills more innocent people. Striking at the leaders only creates a void to be filled by new leaders.

If we were to truly go after the terrorist leaders, in addition to getting OBL and the remainder of his henchmen, we would have to target the "radical" Islamic clerics (Q: How do you tell a "radical" Islamic cleric from a non-radical Islamic cleric? A: The non-radical Islamic cleric has laryngitis!).

If we target the "radical" Islamic clerics in order to get the terrorist leaders, we might as well take the battle to the arab street, because that's how they will interpret us targeting their clerics, anyway. The sad fact is that there is no nice, neat, clean way to fight a war against people in which the barbarity and total disregard of human life is totally rooted in 13th Century beliefs. This is part and parcel of why we are the focus of arab/Muslim hatred.

The progress that the western world has made since the 13th Century has left the arab world behind; trapped in an ancient culture that stopped progressing 700 years ago. When you look at it from their perspective, the very fact that they have been left so far behind the rest of the world is a threat to their way of life. Yet, they CHOSE the Islamic "religion" and the lifestyle that comes with it.

No, my good-hearted friend, trying to eliminate the head of this Medusa only creates more heads. There are fringe elements throughout the Muslim world that are only waiting for their 15 minutes of fame. They will only be horrified into stopping what they are doing when they have forced us to their level - a level which requires us to make indiscriminate attacks on a couple of large population centers and, by doing so, killing their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, nieces, nephews, sons, etc. This is a tactic that the Israelis have discussed taking because captured Palestinians have told them that as long as the battle is only waged against the combatants and NOT their families, they have no fear. This is one of the reasons that the Palestinians indiscriminately attack innocent Israeli women and children in their attacks. They hope to cause the Israelis to lose THEIR will to continue fighting them. The Israelis, like us, are unwilling to attack innocents and, as long as the terrorists know this, they will continue.

The war will end and the terrorists will stop when they know that we will not hesitate to take the battle to their grandma's house and end the Sunday afternoon baclava gatherings. Until then, as long as we surgically attempt to eliminate the Muslim leaders, this war will never end because every Muslim, sooner or later, will become a "leader". Let's just eliminate them all now and shorten the war. The cost in dollars and lives will be substantially less - just as it was in WWII when be bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[Glenn]

Yesterday, the White House promised to "pursue those responsible and bring them to justice." That's the least of it.

You cannot find justice in a war except by winning it.

[DustyMoment]

BTW, when I talk about American lives, please understand that it comes from a force of habit. By stating it that way, my intention is NOT to slight the contributions and sacrifices of our coalition allies and partners who have sustained casualties and losses as well. The British, Poles, Japanese, Norwegian, etc., partners who have joined with us in this war have made great contributions and we really do appreciate yours and their efforts.

[Hewar]

Very Barbaric and brutal. But for these people this is very natural and normal, we know what these people are capable of, have you heared about (Nugrat Salman)prison, it is the symbol of brutality and kurdish genocide, Go to kurdistan and ask any one what Nugrat Salman means to you and listen to their stories,it is aplace in Arab desert were kurds have never seen and even they could not talk the language these terrorists and murderers were speaking, there women
and small children who were dying of hunger and thirst were thrown to the desert for dogs to eat them, ask how many kurds have been eaten by dogs of their desert, not allthe 182000 who disappeared during 1988
are in mass graves, Kurdish satellite channels have programs showing these real witnesses and a large number of documents showing these brutalities to the world if the world wants to listen and see. If they stay in power and supported by Arabs the world will see the real terror as we have seen.

[OldFriend]

Since these barbarians are still in the dark ages, they use the tools of those ages for their murderous ways.

Only the videotape brings their deeds to this era.

Civilization has yet to evolve in this subspecie.

[drq]

I agree.

[Sgt_Schultze]

Sadly, you are correct. The islamofascists hide among non-combatants in cities, schools and mosques. They know the US will not bomb indiscriminately. They can see no repercussions for their terror. They know the chances we will imprison the offenders is slight. They are assured, by our behavior, that they will be safe among women and children.

They are destined to win this struggle unless the US begins to take whatever steps are necessary to retaliate. The enemy has shown that it is willing.

[proud American in Canada]

"If the U.S. government is ambivalent about the murder of Americans, e.g. it's just a "cost of doing business", the cost of war, then why should terrorists feel differently."

bttt! Excellent post.

[guitfiddlist]

This is war. And when you take war seriously - you attack what the other side values, else you're not serious about winning. Did we surmise in WWII that German and Japanese civilians in Berlin, Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the ones pulling triggers? No, we bombed them BIG time - and brought the war to an end.

That means that those who harbor terrorists in their midst should be considered to be worthy targets. Dancing in the streets after an execution like this should earn an AC-130 visit. A mosque advocating resistance should earn a MOAB. A whole town fighting the US armed forces should be leveled, after a decent interval to allow people to exit through controlled lines.

Notice how all "reasonableness", "progressivism" and "equanimity" goes right out the window when ONE execution is seen? As if 9-11 never happened. The American public is serenely out of touch, until an ordinary citizen is brutally murdered. Then they suddenly remember, for a few nano-seconds, what war is all about. Time to capitalize on it.

[txrangerette]

You made that up. Install Chalabi?
Hilarious thought. But if we HAD,
imagine the world's screams if we
think they are against us now. Not to mention the Dems/Media/Iraqis.

Try telling the truth; spin just
destroys credibility.

[Brit_Guy]

Dusty -

Point taken on 'American' lives and 'coalition' lives - I knew what you meant!

I also respect your view. What worries me about taking your position to its logical conclusion is that you seem to be saying that we have reached the point where 'east is east, west is west and never the twain shall meet'. We should wipe out all Arabs, as they will inevitably aim to wipe out all westerners given the power and means to do so. The logic seems to lead us on a path to genocide.

I simply don't buy that every Arab out there despises the west. There are a good number who would love to enjoy the opportunities, freedoms and standard of living that you and I thank god for. We have to identify, bolster, support and empower that group in the face of those who have their vested interests in sticking to a perverse interpritation of a religion to keep themselves in positions of corrupt power.

We are not at war with Arabs. We are at War with Islamic Fundamentalists. The ability to recognise this difference will be the difference between victory and defeat.

[xzins]

Was Madrid 4-11?