May 12, 2004
Nick Berg & the horrors in Iraq
It’s nearly impossible not to write about what’s going on in the world. One week, CBS’s news series 60 Minutes shows a story about Iraqi POWs abused by American captors. What? How can that be? We’re supposed to be protectors for people, not tyrants or torturers. I took a look at the photos released and I got sick to my stomach. How could our soldiers do this?
Everyone from the top down wants to blame the jailers, like they were a rogue band or something. I don’t believe it for a minute. Several of them say they were “just following orders” which is horrifying in that Nazis used that very excuse for the brutality they inflicted on their victims. I don’t know if I believe they were exactly following orders. I do believe that officers can make certain attitudes very clear without coming out and saying them specifically. I think superiors made it known that they wouldn’t punish the jailers for what they did. They were probably rewarded. :P
Now that the secret is out, everyone at the top is scrambling to save themselves. They are mostly saying they didn’t know what was happening and they certainly would not condone that kind of thing.
The abusers have been jailed or pulled from the service or sent home or whatever. They are scheduled to be court-martialed. One general was relieved of command. So far, that is it.
The International Red Cross and Amnesty International both knew the abuses were going on and they tried over and over to report it and have it stopped. Why did it take a year to do anything about it?
People around the world saw those pictures and were horrified. Part of what made me sick was that American soldiers did this! It didn’t help much to learn that British soldiers abused Iraqi POWs too. Aren’t we supposed to be above that sort of thing?
I’ve seen some people react defensively. The Iraqis have done much worse to their own people. Not only that, it wasn’t too long ago that Iraqis attacked a carload of contractors, killed them, dragged their bodies through town and then hung them for everyone to see. I was disgusted by that too but I don’t see how that justifies us behaving like animals. Just because they do it, it’s okay for us to do it? I don’t think so!
How much of this did Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld know? How much did President Bush know? I think both of them should lose their jobs. Rumsfeld should have been fired right from the get go. The Iraqis and other Middle Eastern countries felt he should have been fired. It’s the right move to make politically. Rumsfeld should be fired to show the world we have ‘zero tolerance’ for that behavior. And if he really didn’t know? What kind of fool is he then? How can he be an effective Secretary of Defense if he doesn’t know what the military is doing?
I know that President Bush can’t be fired technically. There is always Election Day.
Bush is behind Rumsfeld and thanked him publically. I found that nauseating, especially because of the news that there’s even more pictures and videos of POW abuse.
A 26 year old man named Nick Berg was beheaded yesterday (or maybe the day before?). He was a telecommunications expert and was in Iraq to help put the country back together again. He had an adventurous nature and had been warned to leave Iraq. He was also a really nice guy. He was detained by Iraqi police and then was released and then kidnapped by other Iraqis. Unfortunately, he was in captivity when the abuse story broke a week ago.
The ‘brave’ group of comrades who kidnapped him released a video tape that shows the whole horrible thing. Poor Berg was sitting on the ground with his arms tied behind his back. He said a few things and then one of the captors pushed him over on his side and cut his head off. They announced they killed Berg to avenge the POWs who were abused.
It’s sickening.
Some people say it’s Berg’s fault he was killed. What was he still doing there after being warned to go home? Some people say it’s our fault because of what happened to the Iraqi POWs.
I think it’s evil feeding evil. One brutal act triggers a retaliatory brutal act. It just gets worse and worse.
I know that we aren’t going to pull out of Iraq but I wish we would. Take all of our troops and leave Iraq. We never should have gone there without UN approval and we have suffered and suffered as a result of it. We are in the middle of a big mess, just like we were in Viet Nam.
I grieve for the loss of Nick Berg and everyone else who died. I feel sorrow for his parents and brother and sister, just like I feel for the other families.
It’s just going to get worse. 