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I am these days, mostly staying home to take care of the four children my husband, Michael and I have been blessed with. I have been having a difficult time with the recent happenings in Iraq up to and including the murder of American Nick Berg. My kids ask me about what is going on and I hestitate to give too much info. I did however, read your writings posted for today, and I really like the way you have worded your feelings. I hope you won’t mind too much if I borrow a word or two from your page when talking with my kids on this subject? Also, just a comment I shared with my husband last night when he asked what I thought about Americans reaction over the “prisoner abuse” at Abu Ghraib: ”...I don’t think Americans are really upset over what they see in the pictures of these prisoners. I feel what they are truly upset with is that our soldiers would be so foolish as to take pictures of it all and now they’re posted everywhere in the world… America is very sensitive to what the world thinks of us right now.” -Michele Rideout, UT

Michele, I am truly at a loss as to what I would say if I had kids asking questions. I have a feeling Dad and the kids would be watching Teletubbies instead of talking heads. And I’d probably be a lot better off if I did that today, even without kids (I’m just worried what my wife would think).

However, with kids, I would surely grasp whatever words I found from anyone that I thought might help. And I guess given the feelings I’ve expressed above, I’d do my best to try and teach them the difference between “moral wrong” and “political wrong.”

Once I figure it out for myself… But I bet that's a distinction kids can make a lot easier than we “mature” adults.

Just wanted to say thanks for posting this. Right now all I can do is sputter with rage and try to quell the urge to kill.

It helps to read coherant thoughts.

“even though he was safely in the custody of US officials in Iraq days before his disappearance.”
I think you will find that this was an assertion by Mr. Berg’s family denied by the officials on site. I guess that isn’t a glaring point but in a post taking folks to task for not applying “blame” to the perpetrators but to, well, all the things you list it seems incongruous. For myself, I never was much of a “Why do they hate us?” sort. The why is quite obvious to me. I sincerely hope that the WORST possible outcome from these events is not realized, that would be (to my mind) a slackening in the war effort in Iraq, A-stan and the other, less visible theatres.

At the time I wrote it this morning, that was the story as I knew it; he was picked up by Iraqi police at a checkpoint, and supposedly ended up in US custody. Allegedly a lawsuit was filed, and he was “released” the next day. By somebody.

This afternoon I’m hearing the claim that he was never in US custody, that he was always in the custody of the Iraqi police, and his detention and release was entirely under their control.

I don’t mean to sound harsh, I’m just very angry. But I guess I must have missed the news report where Iraq itself, as well as control of American citizens in Iraq, was turned back over to the Iraqi people. I was under the impression the entire country was still under the control of the CPA and US military forces. My mistake, I must have been watching “American Idol” then, or something.

But, fine, I’ll ignore the angry grieving father expressing his condemnation of what he called “lies” in words so strong they couldn’t even show it on CNN, and assume Nick Berg was not an employee of the CPA or its subcontractors, and not the responsibility of a single American in Iraq.

It doesn’t change a thing.

But I would just note that the day after his gruesome death was revealed to us, there’s a lot of people on TV today who are expending breath telling us what he not.

Not a CPA employee…

Not under US control…

Not supposed to be there at all, he was told…

And it has the ring of, “Not my fault.”

And it has the ring of, “Not my fault.”
I don’t see how such a sentiment endorses your indictment of those who would pin the moral culpability for this act somewhere other than on the perpetrators and their philosophical bedfellows. I hate to say anything so inflammatory since you have such a good record on civility here but it looks to me like that is exactly what you are doing. Because it ISN’T the fault of those people and institutions you mention except in the way a murder is the fault of the police in that they didn’t stop it.

The details of this being reported now include a claim that Berg was offered help in leaving but refused it. That may be true or that may be false. It is not possible, right now, to know. It may never be known to be true or false. However, if it is a false claim it is a very risky claim for the FBI to make in this political climate. Still, it is all supposition at this remove.

What is not, to my mind, supposition is the identity of those who are actually responsible for this murder; the men who captured him, bound him and used the knife.

In this M. has a strong point.

I understand Berg’s family’s needs to have an explanation that makes sense and that….

Nope. I can’t understand the feelings and needs of the Berg family at this moment and I hope I never will be able to understand it.

Nothing more to say about this right now.

“It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and who’s coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag”

Father Dennis Edward O’Brien

He went to Iraq to help rebuild. It had to be obvious that he was an American – thus – a target. He was executed because he represents freedom and things that muslim extremists believe people shouldn’t be able to do. The best doctrine existed several weeks back, when anyone with a weapon was considered a threat and removed.

>>And it has the ring of, “Not my fault.”

I have been less than happy being an American for a very long time.
As society has sunk deeper into the morass of immorality, should we really think the military is immune from what the democrats have foisted upon us in the moral realm? I find it silly that Boxer or Feinstein could be shocked by anything that they have so long championed. Wasn’t Feinstein the mayor of what is now the outlet for most of the human sewage. San Francisco is declining in almost every measure as a place to live for a family. Is it not Feinstein’s husband that loves dealing in the plantation we call China (the land of slave labor) and where they shoot petty criminals for body parts? I apologize that these two are my senators.