A DAD'S DESECRATION

For all I can postulate and reason, I will probably never figure out why Michael Berg is so far removed from reality or common sense. One might think he would harbor anger at the man who sawed his son's head off in front of thousands, perhaps millions of internet viewers. But no, it seems he's far more dismayed at the death of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi than the death (at Zarqawi's hands) of his own flesh and blood, his son.
I will try to give Mr. Berg the benefit of the doubt, that he's suffered great emotional trauma and needs serious psychological help, even though history indicates the tiger hadn't changed its stripes - Mike Berg was like this even before his son's death. But it's hard to imagine such polar opposites to normal human emotion and a conscience of good and evil. It's as if Nick somehow means nothing, in human, emotional terms, to his father.
Berg the father gave a series of interviews - albeit short ones - on national cable TV networks the other night. They were short because frankly, he's decided to take the psychotic plunge in his antipathy and hatred for George Bush and apathy toward the murder of his son.
Some examples:

You can't really believe that that's a democracy there when the people who are running the elections are holding guns. That's not democracy.

See, I think he has this holding guns thing confused with the actual tyranny of the Hussein regime before the present Iraqi government. Mike, get a grip - the election officers are holding guns for their own protection and for the protection of the people who are voting. You know, from people like Zarqawi who would do anything to thwart anything resembling a free election?

“First of all, I’m not even certain that al-Zarqawi even killed my son.”

So who did? Was it the person he hates the most, President Bush, dressed up in that mask using Zarqawi's voice, wielding Zarqawi's knife? In Berg's own warped mind, I suppose.

“I think the news of the loss of any human being is a tragedy. I think al-Zarqawi’s death is a double tragedy."

So Zarqawi's death is twice as tragic as that of the man he murdered? What a sick puppy.... intentional or not, that is a sick thought.

"If I could have prevented the death of Zarqawi, I would..."



Berg even went so far as to suggest Zarqawi could have been made a "decent human being" through "restorative justice" like working in a hospital treating war victims.
Actually, that probably wouldn't have been a bad idea. So I wonder what kept Mike Berg from going to Zarqawi with his idea right after Nick's death? After all, in Mike's heart, Zarqawi really wasn't such a bad person, right?

Alas, the anomaly that is Michael Berg can be made irrelevant, thankfully, with the contrasting opinion of another beheading victim's family member. Paul Johnson III, son of Paul Johnson Jr, who was killed by al Qaeda in 2004:
"The anniversary of my dad's death is right around the corner...Hearing this pretty much shocked me, but it was a nice shock. I'm glad he's dead. I hope he rots in hell, to tell the truth."
Cyndi Armstrong, wife of Zarqawi victim Eugene Armstrong's cousin:
"An evil man is dead, and what more can you say?"


Somehow after this, Michael Berg seems so small and alone, obsessed with an overwhelming hatred of George Bush. And for the rest of us, life goes on, a victory won.