Nick Berg's Father is a Jerk
I feel for a man who has lost a child quite a bit. And am willing to give him great, great leeway for saying any number of immoderate things in the midst of his grief.
But Nick Berg's father Michael is such a rabid, America-hating cretin that he apologizes for his son's murderers:
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. 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. And I am sure that these murderers, for just a brief moment, did not like what they were doing.
Only to counsel appeasement:
So what were we to do when we in America were attacked on September 11, that infamous day? I say we should have done then what we never did before: stop speaking to the people we labelled our enemies and start listening to them. Stop giving preconditions to our peaceful coexistence on this small planet, and start honouring and respecting every human's need to live free and autonomously, to truly respect the sovereignty of every state. To stop making up rules by which others must live and then separate rules for ourselves.
I appreciate the fact that Michael Berg might not be a political philsopher, but just what the hell is he talking about?
To take just one:
Start honouring and respecting every human's need to live free and autonomously.
Let's contrast this with the inspiration for his son's killers. Here is Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa:
we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims:The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it...
Michael Berg is morally obtuse and ethically devoid to blame America and our President for the murder of his son in the face of such direct contradictory evidence from the mouth of his own son's killer.
Along with his grief, he should be ashamed.
