An online acqaintance tonight said something so right about the situation in Iraq:

I'm a simple person, but it just really pisses me off when the government we elect can't fulfill it's job to protect it's citizens. I understand troops and war and the deaths that result from that. But senseless murder is just to much for me. I'm getting my life on track, feeling good about myself after 40 something years of feeling like crap and now this. I'm ready to cry.

On the other hand...what in the hell was Nicholas Berg doing in a country whose inhabitants pervert the philosophy of Islam? I wish more people would figure out that we're dealing here with whacked out fanatics who only understand strong arming and showing who is boss. So many people around the world have no comprehension about the indiscriminate, violent nature of Islamic extremism and the threat it poses to the civilized world.

As an editorial in the Dallas Morning News so accurately said, "This is who the enemy is. This is what our nation is up against.... But it is important that our readers see in as much detail as reasonably possible what the Islamists have done to an innocent American civilian. It's important because this is the fate al-Qaeda and its allies intend for every one of us in the West, and for the many Muslims who oppose their plans. (Though Arab media have generally downplayed this atrocity, it's actually more important for the world's Muslims to see what is being done in their name.) ... It is meant to bring perspective to events in Iraq, to refocus the nation's eyes on the larger picture of the war against radical Islam, and its stakes.

Nick Berg was but the latest victim in the terrorist war on civilization. Al-Qaeda doesn't intend him to be their last. To paraphrase British Prime Minister Tony Blair, al-Qaeda members killed one, but if they could have killed 100,000, they would have rejoiced in it. Look what they did to this young Pennsylvanian, and understand that this is why we Americans fight, however imperfectly, and that this is why we dare not lose faith in the justice and necessity of our cause. (Emphasis by Ivars)