There’s just no other word for it. Via the great Little Green Footballs, this singular obscenity by the father of the murdered Nick Berg: “I am sure that the one who wielded the knife felt Nick’s breath on his hand and knew that he had a real human being there.” Yes, I suppose that that is true. If Nick Berg had not been a real human being, his murderers would have had less reason for murdering him in the most brutal way imaginable, and sending a videotape of it to Americans. “I am sure that the others looked into my son’s eyes and got at least a glimmer of what the rest of the world sees.” That is to say, they got at least that glimmer before hacking his head off with a knife in front of a video camera. “I am sure that these murderers, for just a brief moment, did not like what they were doing.” Yeah, the poor guys. It’s such a hassle savagely murdering American civilians. And don’t you just ache for the poor fellas who ran those planes into those buildings? I mean…they can’t have enjoyed that, either.
The President, on the other hand? Well, he “doesn’t know my son, and he is the worse for it…. [He] cannot feel my pain...because he...doesn’t have to bear the consequences of his acts. George Bush can [not] see...the heart of Nick….” The heart, that is, which was stilled by fanatics bent on the murdering of American civilians and the oppression of countless people at home and abroad.
It’s hard to criticize a man who’s suffering such an awful thing as the loss of a son. And we often see grief make people do irrational things, like embracing the murderers. It would be preferable to imagine that Mr. Berg’s reason is simply overcome by his grief. Otherwise, he is simply a moral monster, viewing the world through a kaleidoscope of Hostility to America and her purposes.
Comments policy