[News] Beheaded American Nick Berg's father's reaction to death of al-Zarqawi

[Anti-Imperialist News]

"I don't get it. Why is it better to have George Bush the king of 
Iraq rather than Saddam Hussein?"


Michael Berg talks about the death of his son and al-Zarqawi

(CNN) -- The U.S.-led coalition's No. 1 wanted man in Iraq, Abu Musab 
al-Zarqawi -- who conducted a campaign of insurgency bombings, 
beheadings and killings of Americans and Iraqi civilians -- was 
killed in a U.S. airstrike.

A gruesome video was posted on Islamic Web sites in May, 2004, 
depicting a man believed to be al-Zarqawi beheading Nicholas Berg, an 
American businessman who was working in Iraq.

CNN anchor Soledad O"Brien talks to Nicholas Berg's father, Michael 
Berg, by phone from Wilmington, Delaware, for his reaction to the news.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Berg, thank you for talking with us again. It's nice to 
have an opportunity to talk to you. Of course, I'm curious to know 
your reaction, as it is now confirmed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the 
man who is widely credited and blamed for killing your son, Nicholas, is dead.

MICHAEL BERG: Well, my reaction is I'm sorry whenever any human being 
dies. Zarqawi is a human being. He has a family who are reacting just 
as my family reacted when Nick was killed, and I feel bad for that. 
(Watch video of the two bombs falling on al-Zarqawi -- 2:00)

I feel doubly bad, though, because Zarqawi is also a political 
figure, and his death will re-ignite yet another wave of revenge, and 
revenge is something that I do not follow, that I do want ask for, 
that I do not wish for against anybody. And it can't end the cycle. 
As long as people use violence to combat violence, we will always 
have violence.

O'BRIEN: I have to say, sir, I'm surprised. I know how devastated you 
and your family were, frankly, when Nick was killed in such a 
horrible, and brutal and public way.

BERG: Well, you shouldn't be surprised, because I have never 
indicated anything but forgiveness and peace in any interview on the air.

O'BRIEN: No, no. And we have spoken before, and I'm well aware of 
that. But at some point, one would think, is there a moment when you 
say, 'I'm glad he's dead, the man who killed my son'?

BERG: No. How can a human being be glad that another human being is dead?

O'BRIEN: There have been family members who have weighed in, victims, 
who've said that they don't think he's a martyr in heaven, that they 
think, frankly, he went straight to hell ...

You know, you talked about the fact that he's become a political 
figure. Are you concerned that he becomes a martyr and a hero and, in 
fact, invigorates the insurgency in Iraq?

BERG: Of course. When Nick was killed, I felt that I had nothing left 
to lose. I'm a pacifist, so I wasn't going out murdering people. But 
I am -- was not a risk-taking person, and yet now I've done things 
that have endangered me tremendously.

I've been shot at. I've been showed horrible pictures. I've been 
called all kinds of names and threatened by all kinds of people, and 
yet I feel that I have nothing left to lose, so I do those things.

Now, take someone who in 1991, who maybe had their family killed by 
an American bomb, their support system whisked away from them, 
someone who, instead of being 59, as I was when Nick died, was 
5-years-old or 10-years-old. And then If I were that person, might I 
not learn how to fly a plane into a building or strap a bag of bombs 
to my back?

That's what is happening every time we kill an Iraqi, every time we 
kill anyone, we are creating a large number of people who are going 
to want vengeance. And, you know, when are we ever going to learn 
that that doesn't work?

O'BRIEN: There's an alternate reading, which would say at some point, 
Iraqis will say the insurgency is not OK -- that they'll be inspired 
by the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the sense of he was turned 
in, for example, we believe by his own No. 2, No. 3 leadership in his ranks.

And, that's actually them saying we do not want this kind of violence 
in our country. Experts whom we've spoken to this morning have said 
this is a critical moment where Iraqis need to figure out which 
direction the country is going to go. That would be an alternate 
reading to the scenario you're pointing to. (Watch how Iraqi leaders 
cheered after learning about al-Zarqawi's death -- 4:31)

BERG: Yes, well, I don't believe that scenario, because every time 
news of new atrocities committed by Americans in Iraq becomes public, 
more and more of the everyday Iraqi people who tried to hold out, who 
tried to be peaceful people lose it and join -- what we call the 
insurgency, and what I call the resistance, against the occupation of 
one sovereign nation.

O'BRIEN: There's a theory that a struggle for democracy, you know...

BERG: Democracy? Come on, 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.

O'BRIEN: There's a theory that as they try to form some kind of 
government, that it's going to be brutal, it's going to be bloody, 
there's going to be loss, and that's the history of many countries -- 
and that's just what a lot of people pay for what they believe will 
be better than what they had under Saddam Hussein.

BERG: Well, you know, I'm not saying Saddam Hussein was a good man, 
but he's no worse than George Bush. Saddam Hussein didn't pull the 
trigger, didn't commit the rapes. Neither did George Bush. But both 
men are responsible for them under their reigns of terror.

I don't buy that. Iraq did not have al Qaeda in it. Al Qaeda 
supposedly killed my son.

Under Saddam Hussein, no al Qaeda. Under George Bush, al Qaeda.

Under Saddam Hussein, relative stability. Under George Bush, instability.

Under Saddam Hussein, about 30,000 deaths a year. Under George Bush, 
about 60,000 deaths a year. I don't get it. Why is it better to have 
George Bush the king of Iraq rather than Saddam Hussein?

O'BRIEN: Michael Berg is the father of Nicholas Berg, the young man, 
the young businessman who was beheaded so brutally in Iraq back in May of 2004.


Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/08/berg.interview/index.html


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