 Michael Berg, left, collapses to the ground, and is comforted by his son, David, after learning of his son’s death |
Nick Berg has already disappeared from the front pages of newspapers. Although many haunting questions remain about Berg, 26, and his odyssey in Iraq, the murky circumstances surrounding the events which led to his horrific execution at the hands of Iraqi militants linger.
Besides being a human tragedy, Nick Berg’s death two weeks ago represented, as well, an ominous development for the Bush administration, which continues to struggle not only with the disastrous impact of the prison scandal at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib detention facility, but with the almost daily Iraqi terrorist bombings which kill innocent civilians, and American armed forces personnel. With the White House trying to curb attacks by insurgents before the June 30 handover to a caretaker Iraqi government, the spectre of Iraqi terrorists ratcheting up the violence endures as more than a dim prospect.
In an essay published in The Guardian this past weekend, Michael Berg places the responsibility for his son’s death — and for the war in Iraq — at the feet of George W. Bush. Mr. Berg calls for an immediate end to the war in the Middle East, and censures the U.S. President as a man who “doesn’t have to bear the consequences of his acts.”
Mr. Berg offers further condemnation of the U.S. Secretary of Defense …
Donald Rumsfeld said that he took responsibility for the sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners. How could he take that responsibility when there was no consequence? Nick took the consequences.
Even more than those murderers who took my son’s life, I can’t stand those who sit and make policies to end lives and break the lives of the still living.
We mourn tragic loss, all the more so when the death of a loved one was as unnecessary and preventable as the death of Nick Berg.
