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IT'S WELL PAST TIME TO TAKE OFF THE GLOVES Your comments on the savage murder of Nick Berg were exactly right ("Nick Berg's Murder," Editorial, May 12). The American people need to embrace this War on Terror just as fervently as they embraced the war against Hitler and Tojo. We need to annihilate this scourge from the face of the earth. God help this country if John Kerry is elected president. He wants to go back to the failed Clinton policy of treating terror as a criminal offense and not a war. We would simply be at the mercy of these killers. It's about time America stood up and got mad. Have we forgotten 9/11? Have we forgotten the brutal way in which our family members and friends died that day? If we're guilty of anything, it's being too soft on these terrorists. They have made it clear that they will strike us again and again. To hell with political sensitivities, and to hell with negotiating. It's well past time to take off the gloves. It's time to unleash the "shock and awe" we supposedly showed at the onset of this war. It's time to show these thugs that we're done playing around, and that it's over. While I share the outrage all Americans feel over the beheading of Nick Berg, it is a mistake to argue, as The Post has, that his death justifies all-out war in Iraq. The Bush administration committed a serious blunder in committing the United States to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. As powerful as we are, our power is not infinite. It is impossible to annihilate every savage thug in the world, and it is irresponsible for The Post to call for expending more resources and manpower in Iraq to avenge the death of a single American. We successfully disarmed and dethroned Saddam Hussein. Let us declare victory and bring the troops home. The video depicting the brutal and depraved slaughter of American Nick Berg should teach Americans an important lesson. There is a huge difference between the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners and the slow torturous death of American civilians held by the likes of al-Zarqawi and his henchmen. Seeing this stomach-turning scene should steel our resolve to win the War on Terror before these fundamentalist fanatics one day wield a nuclear bomb. Ryan Sager wants Americans to be brutalized by images of a man's beheading, and he pretends that this would show Americans "the justness of their cause" ("Show It All," Opinion, May 13). I'll make a deal with him: Let's show the beheading, but only if we also show equally graphic footage of Iraqis being killed by American bombs, from planes too high to shoot down. But we don't have footage of those crimes, do we? The only images we've seen of this war were from a distance, just as the only images we saw of the last war were of video-game violence, with Americans on tape whooping with delight as buildings were ripped apart. Our butchers really are not one whit better than their butchers. CNN's favorite general, Wesley Clark, has also been heard to opine that our troops are getting bogged down in Iraq. His competence to judge American generals is questionable since his command was limited to working for NATO. We prefer to hear from American generals. Clark's contribution to international relations consisted of mistakenly bombing the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. In his zeal to prevent troop casualties, he ordered pilots to fly at such high altitudes that the pilots complained that they were being forced to incur unnecessary civilian casualties. Ann Coulter LEHRER: President Bush, your closing statement, sir. PRESIDENT BUSH: Three weeks from now--two weeks from tomorrow, America goes to the polls and you're going to have to decide who you want to lead this country ... On foreign affairs, some think it's irrelevant. I believe it's not. We're living in an interconnected world...And if a crisis comes up, ask who has the judgment and the experience and, yes, the character to make the right decision? And, lastly, the other night on character Governor Clinton said it's not the character of the president but the character of the presidency. I couldn't disagree more. Horace Greeley said the only thing that endures is character. And I think it was Justice Black who talked about great nations, like great men, must keep their word. And so the question is, who will safeguard this nation, who will safeguard our people and our children? I need your support, I ask for your support. And may God bless the United States of America. (Applause) Mia T, On Neutered and Neutering It really amazes me how the mainstream media is handling the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners while Nick Berg's execution is censored. It seems to me that many in the media don't want attention taken off the American military, because they think the prison-abuse scandal helps Kerry. I wholeheartedly agree with Sager with regard to having America see the decapitation of Nick Berg. It seems that instead of reacting with the appropriate amount of anger at the barbaric execution of an innocent man, most Americans just don't want to believe something like this could actually occur. For the same reason, I feel that the attacks on 9/11 should be played and replayed over and over - to remind Americans of that horrific day. Maybe the sight of the beheading of an innocent man, along with the images of innocent people jumping to their deaths to escape an inferno, will give us the fortitude to really take this fight to the next level and completely eradicate the terrorists from the planet. |
