This Shouldn't Be a Brutality Contest

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In a barbaric video posted on the Internet, a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda beheaded American contractor Nick Berg, in revenge for the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. In a statement before beheading him, the terrorists ranted: "The dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins...slaughtered this way."

I was disgusted to the very core of my being. As these monsters beheaded Berg, they chanted "Allahu-akbar," Arabic for "God is the greatest." This made me the most sick. With their sheer barbarism, they defiled this sacred expression of devotion to God. I condemn this act of murder--along with every other murder of innocent civilians--with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul.

Still, the last thing we should do is engage in a "brutality contest" with Al Qaeda and other murderous terrorist groups. The angry reaction to the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal is very appropriate. In fact, we should have been up in arms months ago, when the news of alleged abuse first surfaced. It should not have taken "60 Minutes II" to release photos of abuse by American soldiers to cause Congress to hold hearings.

Gary Bauer had it right: "We should take whatever steps appropriate to correct prison abuses because such abuses violate our own values." That is exactly why we must never cease to be angry when our soldiers abuse prisoners of war. We are not like the barbarians who beheaded Nick Berg.