Posted on 05/17/2004 7:21:01 AM PDT by Fintan
THIS ISN'T going to be easy. But some things need to be said to Michael Berg even as he grieves the loss of his son. It would have been more appropriate to let the dust settle before this discourse began, but that is no longer an option where he has turned this tragedy into a morbid blame game.
First and foremost, civilized people everywhere mourn for your family. Nick Berg was, by all accounts, a fine son - smart, ambitious and with an independent spirit for life. Twenty-six is way too young to die. No father should have to endure what you must be going through.
But...
George Bush did not kill your son. Nor did Donald Rumsfeld. And, quite frankly, you are the one politicizing his death when you introduce their names into the same breath as his obituary.
Furthermore, it's just not accurate for you to say "Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld." Your son died due to the sins of unholy people acting through some misguided and irrational vision of their faith. And, frankly, you give your son's murderers the credibility they so desperately lack when you say otherwise.
Here is the bottom line, sir.
Your son's death was far more complicated than a simple case of an unwarranted detainment. The Iraqi police and/or FBI would have been derelict in their duty if they did not take a long, hard look at an American voluntarily in a strange and unsafe part of the world, who had some connection - however bizarre and apparently unintentional - to a 9/11 suspect and, dare I say, particularly where that man's father has a documented record of opposition to what we are doing in Iraq.
The picture that has emerged is one of a young man placing himself in harm's way and remaining so on his own accord against the advice of many around him, including his government, which you now blame for his death. He was not there fighting for his country. He was there seeking business opportunity, which displays a gritty sense of American individualism, but ought not to be equated with the actions of those putting on a uniform.
You have also stated that you "would like to ask George Bush a question... [is it] true that al Qaeda offered to trade my son's life for the life of another person?"
Well, I think I can answer that for you. While any father would understandably hope that such negotiations would be entertained for the life of his son, any outsider is in a far less emotional place to better understand why this can never be the case. Negotiations for the life of Nick Berg would only have guaranteed that more negotiations would have followed. Do you really believe that the men who did what is displayed on that tape are the sort with whom you can - or should - bargain?
"This is an administration that allows something that they arrogantly called the Patriot Act to strip away American to make America not the America that I grew up in" is another of your recent pronouncements.
The America that all of us grew up in no longer exists. But that is not attributable to the Patriot Act, nor any other effort to combat the lawlessness that changed the world on 9/11. You are blaming D-Day for the attack on Pearl Harbor. If you wish blame someone or some group for the disappearance of your America, may I suggest you start with al Qaeda?
Nick Berg didn't die because librarians are at risk under the Patriot Act. He didn't die because he was sent to war by the president and secretary of defense. He didn't die because of the absence of negotiations. He died because some sick SOB with an insatiable hatred for all that is good and decent in this world took his life. The sooner all Americans unite against our common enemy, the sooner we will return to the America in which we were all reared.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Did it seem odd to anyone else that AP caught a picture of the guy's father crying in his brother's lap? If that was the first that he had heard of his son's beheading, why was the reporter there at that particular moment? I suspect the whole thing was staged by his ANSWER father. If that is the case shame on him for using his son's death. I pray that G-d heals his family and I feel they suffered, but I still wonder what the reporter was doing there at that moment?
You are correct about that! His Father seems more interested in making sure his agenda is heard!
Nice use of color, Sarge!
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
Actually the family did know that Nick had been murdered by beheading a couple of days before we knew.
The reporter told them about the video tape.
That's why he collapsed in the yard.
whew... you certainly have tin foil wrapped the wrong way...
On a different note ......I had heard a couple of years ago that Dubya watched Brit Hume on FOX News.
I was Googling trying to find that but can't seem to. I swear it was true.
I was working on a pic and wanted to include a snippit of him saying that it the pic.
Does anybody have a link to a quote by Dubya saying that or anybody stating it factually ?
Anybody ??? .....
What's ludicruous about it .. the man in his grief received a phone call from John Kerry and I can only guess what was said. This is just another political stunt by the Kerry campaign. It's loathesome and disgusting for them to use this man's grief.
"At Any Cost: How Al Gore tried to steal the election." If anyone has not read that book they should. Bill Sammon traveled with the Gore campaign and he reveals some sorted actions by this bunch which really stunned me. After reading it, I fully agree THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO REGAIN THEIR POWER - even use the grief of a father. How sick is that ..??
I don't understand your comment. You think it is not ludicrous that Bush is blamed?
Amen. Too bad the media is continuing to downplay and spin Nick Berg's beheading while at the same time touting and shoving down our throats the prisoner abuse story. It's pretty darn discouraging.
Excellent Article ***BUMP***
Sorry .. if I didn't parse that correctly. I meant it's not a ludicruos statement, because we know where the statement came from .. the Kerry campaign. Everything they say is a lie!
I'm not blaming the dad, I'm blaming the Kerry campaign.
I've missed a few days of news: Has Mr. Berg's father even yet made any denouncement of Al Queda or those specific people who actually carried out the act? The closest I've heard of such is when he said that they had killed the best friend they'd had (which he clarified they to mean Iraqis).
Anything, even yet?
Mr Berg, shut up vote for Kerry and get on with your life......
There are a whole series of coincidences, facts and actions of Berg and his family that indicate a need for a VERY thorough investigation of them and this incident. Michael Berg may rue the day he politicized his son's murder if it turns out his son was an agent, just not one of ours.
Thanks for the ping! This needs to be said and resaid and re,resaid!
By all accounts of Nick's passion for life and purity of purpose in being in Iraq, it is Michael Berg's politicization of Nick's murder that is insulting Nick's memory. Sorry, the father is a hack, a political hack who is using his own son's death as a tool to further the A.N.S.W.E.R. agenda. I do respect Nick Berg's memory, but the father of Nick is due zero respect following his manipulation of the publicity. Nick was obviously a better MAN than his father is proving himself to be.
I'm the LAST person to wear tinfoil and usually jump all over tinfoil wearers;however,there are far too many "coincidences" in this story, for the "simple" one we've been told,to be real.
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