Shame on you, for that utterly CRAP wisecrack, Judd. %$#%@^%!^@#$!#@($)!@_#($_)((*$!!@!!!!!!

That kid handled himself pretty well, and bravely, and he is going to become the catalyst that wakes this country up. HE DIDN'T GET HIS HEAD SAWED OFF WITH A BUTTER KNIFE FOR NOTHING.

Very sad and tragic that this young man was so violently murdered.

The more information that comes out about him though, the more I wish someone could've set him straight about his recklessness, naivety and sheer folly.

That he turned down the diplomat’s offer to have him flown out, and instead opted to travel over land to the border, because he considered the ride to the airport too dangerous, speaks volumes about his stupidity and inability to properly assess risk.

Anon:

Being a citizen imposes certain obligations, like listening when your government tells you to get out of a warzone.

Why, why, why are so many in the West so wilfully blind to the reality of what they are up against? It is almost like there are millions just yearning to get to these people so they can reason with them, proclaim their good faith and organize a mediation session. Anon, may he rest in peace, but if 9/11 didn't do it, why would this? What will it take? Time to re-release Mrs. Miniver.

Sorry, but I have to agree with the cluelessness part. In years past people like him would get themselves killed in the great outdoors (eaten by bears, falling off cliffs, drowning, getting permanently lost, etc.) because they wouldn't listen to advice from people who knew the areas.

But unlike those inadvertent suicides, some good may come from his death if only it continues to remind the weak-willed what we are up against.

Anon

OJ was only saying what everyone was thinking. OJ is putting alot of material on this blog and is publicly commenting on a whole variety of issues. That leaves him open to everyone taking shots at him. It's possible for him to trip occasionally (especially when he puts me down).

Give him a break.

Just imagine this: suppose we'd found out where he was being held. Americans soldiers would have put their own lives at risk to rescue him because he wouldn't leave when asked to. Or, suppose they'd had sense enough to milk it for awhile. Sending tapes of him pleading for his life. Imagine how that would have played in our politics.

If he was a freelance reporter and he wore a safari jacket instead of a t-shirt, people would be praising him and eulogizing him like he was a latter day Eric Sevareid.

I think it was presumptious of his old man to "intervene" on his behalf. Maybe if he was 16 years old, but he was a man, not a boy.

His father is an America-hating crud who disagreed so with his kid that he thought that U.S. custody was tantamount to being held by the enemy.

Perdicaris was a scoundrel, but that doesn't mean that the doctrine "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead" was a bad idea.

The law in its majesty prohibits the millionaire as well as the bum from sleeping under bridges (Analtole France); and if not law then awe ought to protect Americans from Arabs with knives.

It used to.

That said, Berg is a pretty good argument for darwinism, or at least a Darwin Award.

Regardless if Berg had it coming or not, the joke was tasteless. Even though Berg wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, he still had more marbles in his jar than the 5 dolts that were standing behind him.

Regardless if Berg had it coming or not, the joke was tasteless. Even though Berg wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer

LOL

doug:

You don't see those guys wandering around NYC do ya?

You don't see those guys wandering around NYC do ya?

LOL...now that was funny.

However, I do have to wonder if it only because they can't figure out how to get past airport customs at JFK brandishing a machete and a headscarf.

FOX News had a screen crawl saying that Berg was interviewed two years ago by the FBI because Zacarias Moussaoui (the '20th hijacker') used Berg's email address while Berg was resident in Oklahoma. Apparently Berg did not know of Moussaoui's usage. If true, then this case just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Agree with everthing starting with Mike. His murder schocked me out of my depression over Abu Ghraid and that rededeemed him for me.

His father is an asshole.

I'll still give his dad the benefit of the doubt for now, though he does shows signs of taking the Carolyn McCarthy route in response to the horrible death of a loved one (Though the only way the media will keep the Berg case at the top of the news cycle with the Baghdad prison story is if the father comes out as a major John Kerry supporter).

Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but (1) has Berg's Jewishness not been conspicuously left out of much of the coverage, and (2) do we know how he fell into the hands of his killers? And, really, is his father worse than Fred Goldman?

Seems like we are forgetting...AL QAEDA IS SURELY IN IRAQ>>> and what about Berg's iraqi aunt? how odd is that

Rethinking my post, it occurs to me that our national park rangers are expected to go out and rescue idiots all the time.

My position, long held, has been that if a moron climbs halfway up a mountain, he can stay there or come down on his own. I don't want my taxes used to get him.

The way fire departments treat cats in trees.

Not exactly parallel to the case of idiot Americans overseas, but it does get complex.

Harry:

We do charge people for their own rescues at this point.

The feds do, but how much do they collect?

Some rescues run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I doubt the rescuees have the dough to pay.

However, that policy was just about the only thing Reagan did that I applauded.

Up here they pretty routinely charge the nitwits who get stuck on Mt. Washington, anyway.

Harry: Reagan did bomb Libya. You must have enjoyed that.

I did until I reviewed "Operation El Dorado Canyon" (which I highly recommend) a few years ago.

That changed my mind.