America, you are at war!

[MarDav]

I apologize for the length of this, but I've been moved to respond to the hypocrisy represented in the recent media coverage of 2 recent events...

Have you seen the latest photos from Abu Ghraib prison? I’ll bet you have, or I’ll bet you can find them. Now, have you seen the beheading of Nick Berg? No? Well, how about the video of the planes flying in to the World Trade towers, when was the last time you saw that? Or here’s another one, when was the last time that you heard anything at all about the first American soldier to commit atrocities against fellow human beings? I’m talking about the GI who fragged his own comrades while they slept in their tents way back at the beginning of the war. Why haven’t we heard anything about him? Why haven’t we heard that he was executed for his treason?

I’ll tell you why (though you may already know). It’s because swirling all around us is an ever-broadening movement to take down the America that you and I know and love. The Left, the media, our “allies” in Europe and elsewhere, secularists, radical extremists in all our institutions are busy, busy, busy at work filtering the reality that you and I see and hear. They are busy shaping our view of things (or trying very hard to do so). I believe that the Nick Berg slaughter by Islamo-fascist animals needs to be the focal point right now. That despicable act serves as a microcosmic metaphor for the war we find ourselves in. We see an American civilian, Nick Berg, attempting to live and work decently, trying to reach out and help those in need suddenly snatched off the streets by a band of thugs. We see the brutality of the enemy as they offer Berg as a sacrifice to their false god and vain cause. We see how briefly this atrocity plays out in the media, while a case for moral equivalency is made between the Berg murder and the prison abuses. We hear the world’s silence over the savage butchering of Nick Berg (we even hear a hint of justification for this heinous act). We see how quickly the Berg story disappears from the forefront of all media coverage. Didn’t all this happen once or twice or a dozen times before, most notably on September 11, 2001?

Nick Berg’s beheading graphically depicts for us the future of America should She continue to proceed on Her present course. Surely our freedom and liberty have come under attack. Surely we are threatened on every side by a brutal and savage enemy just waiting to get hold of us so he can kill us. Surely there is a silent world that, I daresay, secretly longs for this to happen (a portion of that world currently residing in America, busy working the mechanisms of information in media and education). Surely America’s overthrow can happen in our lifetimes should we sit idly by and let the present state of affairs continue.

I was driving to the airport on Wednesday to pick up my wife and I heard on a radio program an audio of the butchering of Nick Berg. What I heard was a stomach turning, horrific scream that went on for some 30-40 seconds (I didn’t time it, so I don’t know for sure). I listened with disgust as his cries went out, his agonizing screams curdling the air and I imagined his last moments on earth as this savage monster gripped Berg by the hair and sawed into his neck with a knife. I imagined how, as the blood shot out through his torn-open jugular vein, his life pouring out with it, how he suffered, the shrieks giving testimony to this fact. Nick Berg was butchered. He was ritualistically sacrificed by these inhuman beings. His body was desecrated as it was hung from a bridge (like the 4 contractors in Fallujah), with his head lying on the ground beneath his swinging corpse. And America never saw these pictures. America was not treated to what evil really is. America was spared the shock (that some feel She cannot stomach) of watching what militant Islam is all about—what your enemy is ready to do to you, if given the chance. But we have not been spared the photos of the prison abuses, have we? We have been treated to daily doses of virtual porn as we have been told again and again of the “ghastly treatment”, the “grotesque abuses”, the “abominable atrocities” that took place in Abu Ghraib. Think for a minute, if you will. Are those photos ghastly, or grotesque or abominable? No, they are not. They are sad. They are immoral, they are offensive. They disappoint. If those words don’t conjure up enough indignation, I’m sorry. But if I were to use those words to describe the prison photos, what words would be left to describe the death of Nick Berg? Hyperbole diminishes the effectiveness of words, and the current discourse on the prison abuses is hyperbolic. Worse, though, is the lack of discourse on the Nick Berg murder. Perhaps words fail the media at this point. Maybe they’ve run out of ways to express their outrage and indignation. So, then just show us the pictures and let them speak for themselves! You won’t have to worry about mustering up the proper indignation, the pictures will reach right down into the human soul and do the work for you. I believe it was Ted Koppel (maybe it was Tom Jarrell, at this point all the media elite are the same person to me) who pointed out when asked about whether or not it was appropriate for the media to display the prison photos, how it was indeed necessary because photographs, frozen moments in time captured on film could do so much more to depict and relate a scene, while words would limit things. This notion can indeed be seen at work in the hysteria over Mel Gibson’s movie (isn't it ironic how we need to see the real-life photos from the prison, but how Gibson shouldn't have gone so overboard to depict the sufferings of Christ). In The Passion of the Christ, Gibson takes the verse from the Gospel of John, “he (Pilate) had Him (Jesus) scourged” and turns it into a 25 minute depiction of brutality over which the secular world became offended—too much blood. The brief Gospel text (read in a few seconds) conveys an act of violence that the mere words do not begin to explore (I won’t go into a theological discussion of why this is so at this time). Gibson, the film maker, though, sought (and succeeded, I believe) in conveying via film all the brutality, all the horrific blood-letting that the verse, “he had Him scourged,” means Film is powerful. So, where are the photographic depictions, the videos of Nick Berg’s murder? You’ll never see them. That is not what people want you to see and not what [some] people want to look at (they want to look at the prison photos instead). You see, the images of Nick Berg's murder would simply be too powerful and would work to get America back on message when it comes to the present war. The images of Berg's death would also serve another purpose. They would lend proper perspective to the hysteria going on in jail cells in Iraq. I believe there has been a conscious decision by a rather large group to shield America from the images of Nick Berg’s brutal death, a death which ought to outrage every American.

There can be only one answer to this atrocity and the filtering of it from the eyes of America. America must wake up and steel itself for war. I’m not talking about the war we’ve been waging up till now. I’m talking about what we need to be doing from here on. There are enemies of this nation (enemies without and within) who must not be allowed to continue their war against America without a proper response. For the Islamic terrorist, America must rain down death. There is no winning the heart and mind of this foe. His mind is darkened, he imagines evil continuously, he is a brute beast, going around seeking whom he may devour. Death is the only answer for this enemy. For the Leftist, for the haters of America the answer is to wrest control of all that he owns and operates that props itself up in opposition to this land. The hand-wringing politician must be exposed for the coward he is. The inflammatory politician must be silenced through the ballot box; remove his platform and his message will diminish. For the educational propagandists, they must be countered at every turn. Our education system has been surrendered to the haters of traditional American values. I am a former teacher, and I can tell you that upwards of 95% (perhaps more) of my colleagues in the 10 years I taught were atheistic liberals who did not know and did not care to know anything about the founding of this nation, of original intent of the Fathers of this nation, or of the will and desire of the majority of this nation. They are agenda-driven ideologues whose days must be numbered if we are to have future generations who appreciate and love what America needs to be in order to continue to be America. For the media propagandist, they must be “outted” as the biased, deceptive, half-truth tellers that they are. They must be exposed for their distortions. They must be exposed for their shadings of truth. They must be exposed and countered at every turn. I groan when I see those from the Right delicately tip-toe through the minefield of political correctness to respond to wild claims and accusations (doing so only legitimizes these positions in the minds of an undecided audience). Enough! Political Correctness has strangled thought, silenced whole positions, cowed a people. Americans have to reclaim the platform and properly marginalize those on the Left who have re-written our history, who have re-defined our foundation, who have destroyed our Constitution.

I am well aware of how severe all this sounds. In today’s climate, many Americans, no doubt, will lump me in with the Islamic jihadists I purport to reject. I sound too extreme. I agree. Given today’s climate this is roughly a 180 degree turn from what we’ve become…but not from what we set out to be. This is merely a return to who and what the Founders hoped America would be: a people of faith, a people of unity, a people of liberty, a people of character and strength and wisdom able to see danger coming from a great distance and willing to take all necessary steps to defend that liberty. It is my belief that without these measures taken, we will not survive for very long. It may even be that our day will see the end of America, should she decide to slouch and cower. It is also my belief that, should America choose to stir to wakefulness, should she take a moment and repent of her sins (so to speak), should she desire to re-visit her great heritage and charter, her potential for greatness and goodness, she can rise again and become what she was intended to be, a nation of liberty and freedom dwelling securely underneath the wings of an all-endowing Creator.

In the play Julius Caesar, after the Roman leader’s assassination there is the scene where Brutus and Marc Antony give funeral orations. Brutus, in an attempt to persuade the crowd of his cause justifies his actions by using logic. Brutus is a stoic and, as such, believes that reason and not emotions is the basis for sound living and will always win the day. After his speech, Antony ascends the pulpit (bringing with him the sheet-covered body of the slain leader) and without words of wisdom or learning delivers an impassioned, stirring reminder to the people of Rome who Caesar was. In refuting Brutus’ reasons for killing Caesar (Brutus claims it was because of Caesar’s growing ambition), Antony recounts for the mob the assassination and says of it, “And, so, great Caesar fell. And what a fall there was! Then you and I and all of Rome fell.” At the high point of his eulogy he throws back the sheet and bids the citizenry to look upon the face and mutilated body of Caesar. As repulsive a thought as this sounds, America needs to see the butchering of Nick Berg. We must be brought face to face with the savagery of our enemy. We must be reminded of the affront to us all that took place in that, what was for Nick Berg, lonely room where his screams still echo. And as we view the images we must envision ourselves kneeling before a group of hooded executioners reading our death sentence overhead, readying the gleaming blade about to be drawn across our necks. We must ask ourselves, “Is this the fate I want for my son or daughter?” Will that lonely Iraqi room, the altar where Nick Berg was sacrificed to the jihadi god be the place where you and I and all of America fell? As I have vowed to do, I say in closing,

Remember Nick Berg!

[RightWhale]

No, it is you.

n.s. LOL

I did not remove his head.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Wholeheartedly agree. We have got to do something or it is lost.

[MarDav]

Yes, MMTU, the handwriting is indeed on the wall. I just read this morning at Worldnetdaily.com that the SCOTUS will not review the appeal that opposes gay marriage in Massachusetts. If that doesn't lay it all out for the believer where we are as a "nation under God" who are "endowed by their Creator...".
America has done a 180 from its founding principles and now, it may well be just a matter of time...After 9/11 many could be heard to sing/pray "God Bless America" Well, He has blessed America! But too many Americans are suffering from the misconceptions that a) they can pretty much do what they want and God will contain to rain down His blessings and b) the God who has blessed them is not also holy and just. He owes America no special considerations at this time in history, except maybe to total up our sins and mete out the just recompense...