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Now That The Apologies Are Over...Let’s Get On With It! Although it appeared Al Qaeda’s intention in the brutal slaying of Nick Berg, the American civilian beheaded by terrorists in Iraq, apparently was some kind of propaganda ploy in retaliation for our abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, it was a big mistake and has already started to work against the notorious terrorist group. They showed what blatant brutality is; something they are obviously used to. By our handling of our own inexcusable, vulgar display of so-called torture, as was done by a few idiots in the prison — even if it was engineered by our own intelligence people — it in no way reaches the extent of barbarism displayed by the murderers. We can’t be so naïve as to pretend that our own troops don’t "torture" those we’ve captured in wars. Those idealistic portrayals of the American soldier being above it all went the way of comic books during and after World War II. Innocence was lost a long time ago. Gone are the John Waynes and even the Arnold Schwarzeneggers of old, who would gently (to a point) coerce intelligence from spies and other captives. It was said that we didn’t stoop to the low tactics of our enemies. We were heroes and that was that! Wrong! We’ve been around now and we know "things happen" at those detention camps; things we were at one time propagandized to not believe, even though our hearts questioned our own tactics. But we didn’t broadcast the torturing and eventual beheading of a civilian. We are still above that. As despicable as the disgraceful behavior of our own troops at the prison were, let’s not forget to put the situation in perspective. We did wrong. We an-nounced to the world that we did wrong and that we’re willing to fix it (and, by the way, we’re sorry!). It remains to be seen whether the human rights in-fringed upon the prisoners were against the Geneva Convention, however. The acts were indeed something to be ashamed of, but how can anyone dare to compare those acts to the beheading of Nick Berg? Which brings us to another topic, although re-lated: I’m getting a little bit tired of apologizing. I un-derstand the president and the secretary of defense and whoever and their feelings on the subject. We were all ashamed of the behavior of our troops in the prison. We have, however, tendered our mea culpas. That’s enough! Be done with it. We have heard no terms of regret from Al Qaeda regarding the murder of Daniel Pearl or the hanging of bodies of civilians a few months ago…or the murder of 3,000 human beings in the World Trade Center. We’re at war. It’s not the time to lay the guns down and be overly sensitive to feelings we’ve hurt. Our enemies only know strength. Strength is the master where they are concerned and we had better pay attention to that philosophy. We can be compassionate and trusting and tender — and even contrite. But we must realize these are traits unknown by our enemies. Those enemies are, by their own admission, filled with hate. They have promised to destroy us. Their tactics are, obviously, those of killers who will commit suicide in order to destroy their enemies. There is only one way to fight that: power. Yes, we’re sorry for our few — and they are few — digressions. We will punish those responsible. But be warned: that’s enough. We’ve been pushed too far as it is. We’re strong too, and it’s time we showed our strength.
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