When Nicholas Berg, a 26-year-old freelance contractor who fixed radio towers, was beheaded on videotape in Iraq in May 2004, it marked the beginning of a new wave of violent retaliation by Islamic militants -- and a sign that a more brutal war lay ahead. So when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq and the man personally responsible for Berg's murder according to the U.S. government -- was killed earlier this month, Bush and other government officials championed it as a major victory.
Yet one person, Michael Berg, Nick's father, found little to celebrate. The 61-year-old retired teacher who lives in Wilmington, Delaware, has said that al-Zarqawi's murder simply perpetuates a cycle of violence the United States refuses to bring to an end. Berg, an outspoken pacifist, has been deluged by the press recently about his views and the meaning of al-Zarqawi's death. He spoke with TAP on Thursday about his calls for Bush's impeachment, the road to forgiveness, and his bid this fall as a Green Party candidate for the lone House of Representatives seat in Delaware against Republican incumbent Michael Castle.
What did the murder of al-Zarqawi mean to you, if anything?
What it meant to me was several things. One is sorrow that a fellow human being was murdered by my own government. … I also felt bad that there would never be a chance for a reconciliation between al-Zarqawi and me. I guess I was always hoping that I would get the opportunity to meet with my son's killer and find someway to reconcile with him. I had forgiven him.
Does it matter to you if he was guilty of killing your son or not?
You know, I thought right from the very beginning, I don't know these people, I'm not going to walk down the street and bump into one of these people. …It took me so long to learn how just to say Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. …What matters to me is I'll never see my son again. That's all that matters to me. Nothing is going to change that.
After al-Zarqawi was killed, you emphasized his humanity -- that he was a father, and a son, etc. This, I'm sure, came as a surprise to many.
It's very important to emphasize that al-Zarqawi is a human being because if Zarqawi is a human being then certainly the American public can understand and believe that the rest of the people in Iraq -- the rest of the people who have been killed in Iraq, the rest of the people who have lost loved ones in Iraq -- are human beings, too, and that's not a message that our press or our President want to get out. These are human beings and we've done everything we can to dehumanize them.
From what I've read, your nonviolent and progressive politics did not always align with those of your son, who was a Bush supporter in favor of the war. Did the two of you ever reconcile those differences or reach a common ground?
Oh, we most definitely did. We talked about the war a lot, and Nick knew I was on a different side than he was and I knew he was on a different side than I was. One day about a year before he went to Iraq I came home from an antiwar march and Nick came up to me… and he said, ‘You know Dad, you and I disagree about this war but I really admire and respect you for standing up for what you believe in.' That's the way Nick was, he was that way all the time. So yeah, we found common ground.
Is there a way the Iraq War -- or any attack on a nation allegedly harboring or in cohorts with terrorists could have been carried out in a just fashion?
What we should have done before September 11, 2001, is we should have done what George Bush has categorically told us since the day he was elected. … He calls it negotiate with terrorists -- I call it have diplomatic relations with the representatives and leaders of other groups of people. … What everybody wants is sovereignty, self-determination, and freedom from abuse. … If we would get out of the Middle East right now, get out of the Middle East … every place where we have an influence, every place where we are where we are not wanted, I think the world would be a much more peaceful place.
Having decided to run for Congress since your son's death, did you ever think of running as a Democrat?
The Democrats can't do it. When you sign on to be a Democrat, they must make you sign a pledge, I will not end the war. That's our lifeblood is the war. The corporations that support us support the war, so I'm not going to end it. … I know we can do it, and I know that anything short of that is irresponsible.
I was asked to run as a Democrat and I turned it down. … What message would they let me dare? They wouldn't let me say end the war immediately. They wouldn't let me say … universal health care for everyone now. They wouldn't let me say let's spend some money on education, let's spend some money on Social Security. Let's stop spending money on war and fix the infrastructure of this country. Let's give everyone a livable wage and let's stop wasting our planet through global warming -- they wouldn't let me say any of these things, so what would be the use of running for them?
Have the Democrats lost the moral high ground? Was there anything they could have done to live up to their role as an alternative to Republican Party that they haven't?
They haven't done anything to be an alternative to the Republican Party. Look, John Kerry called me about two nights after Nick was killed and he said this is not political, this is just man to man, father to father. But somehow or other the message came across loud and clear that he was the peace candidate and he was going to do to get elected and he was going to say whatever he had to say to get elected. … But right around the inauguration, Kerry said, “I think George Bush is doing it all wrong.” If I had been elected, I would increase the troop level and increase the amount of spending on the war, and he didn't have to say that anymore.
So what have the Democrats done? ... They haven't done anything any different. You know why I call them Republicats, because they're all one party.
Aside from calling Bush a terrorist, you've also called for Bush's impeachment, which is a long shot regardless of the grounds for it. How have the Republicans captured so much moral and political high ground?
I think the Republicans have framed the question in such a way that the Democrats are afraid to be seen having a cocktail at dinner. They frame things that they are the high, moral people, and the Democrats bring you abortion and drugs and everything else that is bad. … But I don't believe that they have the moral high-ground because I think they have participated in what will be remembered in history … as the people who supported the most immoral war that the United States of America ever participated in.
Can you tell us something about your son -- his life, his death, his legacy -- that the media's focus on his brutal murder and al-Zarqawi's end has missed?
Nick was… a kind, generous, giving man. He had a marvelous sense of humor… and he was profoundly interested in spreading amongst people at all levels the ability to communicate. … He erected 2,000 radio towers [in Iraq]. … That's who Nick was. … He was a person who that, had he not died, you would have been writing about him eventually.
Alex P. Kellogg writes for The Detroit Free Press.
