Father of murdered contractor sees no good in Zarqawi death
The father of a US contractor believed to have been beheaded in Iraq by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said today he does not see any good coming from al-Zarqawi’s killing.
“I see more death coming out of al-Zarqawi’s death,” Michael Berg, of Wilmington, Delaware, said.
Berg, a pacifist who is running for Delaware’s lone US House of Representatives seat on the Green Party ticket, is the father of Nicholas Berg, who was taken hostage and executed by Islamic militants in 2004.
Berg said al-Zarqawi’s death is likely to foster anti-American resentment among al-Qaida members who feel they have nothing left to lose.
He dismissed the notion that al-Zarqawi’s death might bring him some kind of closure.
“First of all, I’m not even certain that al-Zarqawi even killed my son,” said Berg, who said he does not believe the videotape of his son’s execution or what he’s been told by the FBI any more than he believes conspiracy theories suggesting that Nicholas Berg was killed by the FBI or a US assassination squad.
“I think the news of the loss of any human being is a tragedy. I think al-Zarqawi’s death is a double tragedy,” he said.
Not only does al-Zarqawi leave a grieving family, but his death is likely to spark renewed violence, Berg believes.
“His death will incite a new wave of revenge. George Bush and al-Zarqawi are two men who believe in revenge,” he said.
Berg said “restorative justice”, such as being forced to work in a hospital where maimed children are treated, could have made al-Zarqawi “a decent human being”.
“Now that he’s dead, that’s not a possibility,” he said.
“It just doesn’t do any good,” Berg added
“It just continues an endless cycle of one death after another after another.”
