Thank You, Michael Berg
I want to take this morning to say thank you to Michael Berg.
Mr. Berg’s son had his head chopped off by militaant Islamic fundamentalist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Yet, when Zarqawi was himself killed by a 500 pound American bomb this week, Mike Berg did not celebrate.
All across America, there were people saying how wonderful it was that Zarqawi was killed, how great it was that we dropped a bomb on the building where he… and other people… were. People in our government and throughout the mainstream media were saying that killing Zarqawi was a wonderful thing to have happened.
Then Michael Berg spoke, and cast the orgy of bloodlust of America in the light that it deserves. He said,
“The death of every human being is a tragedy. The death of Mr. al-Zarqawi means the continuation of the violence and revenge that took the life of my son. This will mean an increase in violence and resistance to the occupation of Iraq by the US military. I sincerely wish the Iraqi people and the US soldiers who believe they are protecting us good fortune in weathering the upcoming violence.”
Michael Berg is right. Perhaps it was necessary to kill Zarqawi, though I cannot fathom why the United States did not try to capture him instead, and get valuable information about the operations of the Iraqi insurgency that no corpse can provide. Even if this killing was necessary, should we celebrate it? What are our children learning, watching us glory in the killing of another human being?
Zarqawi was a nasty man, but now, he will never be brought to justice for his crimes. No, what happened to Zarqawi was not justice. It was revenge. It saddens me to see that the United States of America has become a nation whose foreign policy is now dictated by revenge instead of true justice.
When our government kills people, it hurts us as much as it hurts the enemy.
There will be no lasting solution found in killing. Michael Berg offered a refreshingly mature perspective when he said as such this week.
Michael Berg is running for Congress in Delaware this year. He deserves your support.
