you answered it aready. They al likely have seen their family suffer in some way...that makes them want revenge. It's another case of American's not understanding the culture of where they are. Tribal cultures have a big thing for the need for revenge. And I applaud them for it. If anyone tried to touch my boys, I'd fucking hack them to pieces BEFORE breakfast, then shit on their mutilated faces then let them cook out in the sun.

I didn't answer anything and you just added yourself to the list of people I don't understand.  If you saw the Nick Berg video and can applaud that behavior, I am glad we are only associating online. 

I, too, made the mistake of watching this video. It almost made me physically ill. I can't understand why or how someone can do that to another human being. I am one of those people who think we need to be over there in the middle east (because of people like Al-Zarquawi). I know it goes against everything that I taught while growing up but I think that I could do that right back to all of those who were involved with Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl (Ok....and the rest of the Americans that have been killed). But being in the military has made me feel a really strong connection to those serving abroad in places such as Iraq, Afganistan, Korea, etc..and when an American dies as the way they have overseas, I feel it. So, to make a long story short Jill, I agree and their behavior makes me sick.

I don't get it either. I didn't let myself watch the video because my mental pictures are more than enough to keep me up at night. Hearing the news was enough to make me cry. I wish I had words for this.

I don't think anyone will be able to understand what those people are thinking. Maybe not to Nick Berg, because there are fairly credible hints to his killing being a conspiracy. Like mikimouse said, there is a gap in understanding between cultures, but miki, I think you were WAY off in your assumptions. And most certainly you're applause.

Either way, it's all very confusing to me.

you answered it aready. They al likely have seen their family suffer in some way...that makes them want revenge. It's another case of American's not understanding the culture of where they are. Tribal cultures have a big thing for the need for revenge. And I applaud them for it. If anyone tried to touch my boys, I'd fucking hack them to pieces BEFORE breakfast, then shit on their mutilated faces then let them cook out in the sun.

If Nick Berg was one of the individuals who caused their families to suffer, then I wouldn't condemn his beheading, much like how I wouldn't condemn U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqis directly responsible for the suffering of innocent people. However, I have yet to see Nick Berg or the majority of Iraqi POWs being responsible for the suffering of innocents, and therefore can only consider these people to be monsters. I don't understand how the revenge can be just if it's unleashed upon somebody who has nothing to do with the act that needs vindicating.

Pure evil is one of the most difficult things for most people to understand. That is what motivates people to torture others. I never could understand bullies either.

Jill: Interesting article. I can't help answer the questions, however; personally I would prefer these people be brought to justice in a way that we can learn from them in the future. While removing them from the population is good in the here and now, that, in my mind, falls into the category of revenge not justice. I would rather see a way in which our military, policy officials, intelligence agents can learn from past terrorist so as to prevent future ones (I'm not set on the method: trial, interrogation, ?). I feel the same way about Saddam and bin Laden--I don't want them dead, I want them brought to earthly justice--for I have no guarantee that justice will be served in any afterlife.

All good points (that is the ones given after miki's comment).  I am relieved in a way that noone can explain the motivation.  I think Sherye has the only explaination I can surmise.

Are you amazed, shock, bewildered? Why? You just read a new's column, you only saw a bad resolution video. How could you feel it if YOU WERE THERE. if the happening were witnessed at real time by your soul & your senses. What I will tell you is deeper that you expected. The motivation that lies under the worst of human behavior is a complex one; yet, one thing is clear: we can not excuse it... However, judging by your own words you, somehow, share in you the same motivations than the monsters... Am I joking? Let's see with cold eye what you said & put it in a monster's context:

" I am a person who sees horrible things LIKE WHAT HAPPENED ON VIETNAM & BEIRUT or what is HAPPENING IS PALESTINE (I made the mistake of LIVE IN GAZA'S stripe for a while) and feel that those people responsible (Americans) deserve to be eliminated from the population.... Quick & painless is fine as long as they are not longer around..."
Forgive me, but your words sound perfect ia a terrorist context. Nevertheless, you, candorously, still stated: "I just don't have it in me to fathom someone being able to slowly hack someone's head off with a knife..." YES, YOU DO.
Your final words have betrayed you: "if someone did something horrific to someone I love, I would probably WANT TO SEE THEM SUFFER..."
& then you add ( in appereance by merciful reasons) "That suffering doesn't have to be physical though..."
& your conclusion (to leave someone responsible of an atrocity alive just with the goal of make its live a long & continuos & indescriptible hell) is the perfect definition of a terrorist or torturer's mind...
You wonder about the source of horrific things?
How you justified all the horrific thing that you WOULD do in a similar contex? Because, somebody did harm you first... It this right? So, according to you revenge is always permisible. If you are right, avenger of all kinds are right: terrorist, cheif of state, pows...
"Does anyone understand how anyone could do such horrific things?"
You wonder. Yet don't feel so bad (if you do); it is not my purpose to review you personal thoughts & feelings. This example can be apply to all of us. Old morals sometimes speak truth: how easy to find the fault in the others & conceal the error in ourselves. We reject what we really don't know. IGNORANCE can be the mother of horrible acts. & we, Americans, are more ignorant that we really think... (this case is just an exmple).
& the moral of the story is as follows:
Dont' be ashamed of a monster when you are a monster youself...

"I am a person who sees horrible things LIKE WHAT HAPPENED ON VIETNAM & BEIRUT or what is HAPPENING IS PALESTINE (I made the mistake of LIVE IN GAZA'S stripe for a while) and feel that those people responsible (Americans) deserve to be eliminated from the population.... Quick & painless is fine as long as they are not longer around..." Forgive me, but your words sound perfect ia a terrorist context. Nevertheless, you, candorously, still stated: "I just don't have it in me to fathom someone being able to slowly hack someone's head off with a knife..." YES, YOU DO. Your final words have betrayed you: "if someone did something horrific to someone I love, I would probably WANT TO SEE THEM SUFFER..."

The difference is that she isn't saying all Iraqis deserve to be eliminated from the populace. She's saying those responsible do. There's a big difference between killing murderers and killing innocent people just like there's a difference between kidnapping a child and locking up a murderer.

"What Motivates These Monsters?"

Their own pain.

I don' t understand it either. I think torturing people is disgusting. I know I would never be able to fight in a war because I would never be able to hurt another human person.

you answered it aready. They al likely have seen their family suffer in some way...that makes them want revenge. It's another case of American's not understanding the culture of where they are. Tribal cultures have a big thing for the need for revenge. And I applaud them for it. If anyone tried to touch my boys, I'd fucking hack them to pieces BEFORE breakfast, then shit on their mutilated faces then let them cook out in the sun.

You applaud them for wanting revenge????? In social studies class I heard a true story about a family from Europe who traveled to the Middle East. They were driving through a very remote part of land, probably near or in the desert, where a certain tribe lived. When driving, they accidentally hit a child from the tribe, killing him. They stopped and got out of the car and tried to apologize. They were shocked and practically traumatized. Then some of the members of the tribe opened up the doors to the back seat of the car, pulled out one of the kids, and killed him. That was their revenge. After that, the situation was fine to the people in the tribe. But imagine how the family from Europe felt, accidentally killng a child and then watching one of their own killed.

In addition, wanting revenge through honor killings is one of the things that keeps the problems in the Middle East alive, especially with the Israelis and the Palestinian Arabs.

And you applaud people for this? That's disgusting.

~Molly

Poor Jill, she asks an innocent question and is called a monster! Unbelievable! It just shows that there is an impenetrable dark side to "humanity." Whether it's a horrendous act of beheading, flying into buildings or kinapping and murdering children, the horror, the horror is shock and awe beyond comprhension.

It is certainly sad and offensive, but to be fair, I have to wonder and imagine what is happening on the inside of the people in the arab countries. How much do you have to believe in something to willing to explode yourself to kill your oppressors. How much would I have to throw it all away. The terrible things we are seeing on t.v., newspapers and media are presented as if this had a cause and effect. In a sense it does, but I suspect that it has a great deal to do with ongoing historical wrongs done in the name of this or that. I think it's horrible that the contractor/businessman was executed in such a fashion, but I wonder what it looks like to have 50 caliber slugs exploding through wall, homes and bodies. I imagine it's equally horrific.

v.