Pray for Nick Berg

I honestly don't know what's worse: hearing about (and seeing the photos of) Nick Berg's beheading at the hands of an Islamofascist cell, or hearing about how it's "revenge" for what happened at Abu Ghraib. We really have forgotten Daniel Pearl, haven't we?

Andrew Sullivan thinks Al-Qaida is "pathetic and dumb" for thinking these horrible scenes will demoralize Americans and help their cause, but I'm not so sure. They've certainly noticed the agonizing and soul-searching Americans have put themselves through since the Abu Ghraib abuses came to light, and believe this is just the sort of scene that could push them back into an isolationist shell. Instead of another Vietnam, the Islamofascists would prefer a replay of Beirut or Somalia.

In the meantime, this has almost certainly shown up on Al-Jazeera by now, and its target audience is almost certainly going through the same kind of soul-searching about what has been done in their name.

In Bizarro World.

Update: this Mark Steyn column, written just after the killing to Daniel Pearl, is worth revisiting.

Update II: read this, too.

Posted by damian at May 12, 2004 05:36 AM