Standard Operating Procedure



When this happened I visited Damascus where I got to know an Iraqi professor who was visiting the city too. The shocking pictures induced considerable disturbance, and I have reported on that almost significant emotional event some time ago. President G. W. Bush apologized for the mistreatment of detainees in Abu Ghuraib on May 6, 2004. But that was not well-perceived in the Arab world. Shockingly, the American hostage Nicholas Berg was beheaded one day later by the dastard slayer Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. I remember the horrible video which immediately circulated on the internet. And that I was more or less forced to see it by an Arab colleague who obviously wanted to teach me, the Westerner, a lesson.

Zarqawi was killed in a US bombing raid exactly 2 years ago. Berg's assassination added a new, indeed catastrophic, dimension to the war in Iraq.

The award winning semi-documentary Standard Operating Procedure by Errol Morris can now be seen in movie theatres throughout Europe.

This posting is in commemoration to Nicholas Berg.

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