I can't watch the video of Nick Berg being beheaded. I wouldn't have watched the video of Fabrizio Quattrocchi's killing even if his cowardly murderers had released it. On some level, I know that it's my duty to be a witness to this kind of depravity. It's hard to have the resolve necessary to defeat evil if you don't face it honestly. On the other hand, I've never once pretended that the monsters we face are anything but, well, monstrous. So, I'm taking a pass on this one.

But here's the thing. I think other people may need to see it. I don't mean this to sound hypocritical, but the people that are worried about global condemnation over America's actions in Iraq need a refresher course on what horrifying creatures we are trying to defeat. This isn't to diminish the actions in Abu Ghraib, but rather to not diminish the forces of evil against us. The men and women who tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib will be punished. That is what we do to people like that in America. The men who killed Nick Berg are celebrated in their culture. If we're lucky enough to find them and kill them they believe they'll be greatly rewarded in heaven. We can tell wrong from right. They can't.

CBS showed disturbing images from Abu Ghraib in the name of good journalism. They did not, however, show images of Nick Berg's murder. This type of media hypocriscy has been going on since the afternoon of September 11th. This hypocrisy means that our actions (and I mean our policies, not the actions of these morons in Abu Ghraib) are never put in their proper context. How can you understand the sheer ferocity we should fight the War on Terror with if the images from when it started have been supressed for two years in order to not enflame us? We're at war. And it's for a reason. A damn good one.