Iraqi Detainees Abused; U.S. Captive Beheaded

Re “U.S. Businessman Beheaded in Iraq as Militants’ Videotape Rolls,” May 12: Please let me know when Al Qaeda starts its inquiry on Nick Berg’s torture and death. Is it right after the ambush killings and body burning/desecration court trial? Is Le Monde calling for Osama bin Laden’s resignation yet? Is Al Jazeera investigating the blood lust of Arab Islamic fundamentalist religious culture? Will the Berg family be paid reparations from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi?

Just let me know. I’m patient.

Leland P. Hammerschmitt

Ojai

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Prisoners in Iraq may have been humiliated. They were not tortured; neither were their lives forfeited. Berg, who was engaged in rebuilding Iraq, was singled out for murder. His executioners cried out “God is great” while displaying his severed head to Arabs on a videotape. I shall patiently await any abject apology from their leaders.

Marshall Wernick

Los Angeles

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The sight of an American being beheaded in Iraq is horrifying. The sight of Democrats on Capitol Hill blaming President Bush because of the Iraqi prisoners’ treatment is just as bad. This is not a political subject but a human tragedy. I recall that Daniel Pearl got the same treatment and wonder what the same people feel Bush did to precipitate Pearl’s fate.

Criminals will use any excuse for their actions. It is sad that any of us would accept their justification as being factual. They murder for no other reason than that it makes them feel powerful in an unempowered society.

Riley Perry

Los Angeles

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Re the beheading of Berg: Send all Americans home now. Why should any more die for Bush’s war?

Barbara Leverich

Marina del Rey

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We humiliate Iraqi POWs by making them wear women’s underwear on their heads, and they retaliate by cutting off the head of an American. I’d say there was a big difference in cultures, and the sad part is that the Americans accused of their heinous crimes of humiliation will be punished more than the hooded terrorists who coldbloodedly took the life of an innocent man. Allah is indeed great!

Stephen M. Kienzle

Whittier

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Re “A Double Ordeal for Female Prisoners,” May 11: To read that we are now jailing the wives of suspected senior Baathist officials in hopes of coercing their husbands into providing information is unfathomable. If guilt by association is now criminal, then when do we impeach Bush for his support of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld?

Jesse Albert

Los Angeles

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Those who attempt to excuse the torture in the Iraqi prisons by quoting “war is hell” or referring to abuses in other wars are conveniently forgetting that this occupation of Iraq is being touted as a “liberation” of the Iraqis (letters, May 10). Lord deliver me and all creatures of this Earth from liberation by the Bush administration.

Sarah Hearon

Santa Barbara

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Is David Walton’s letter real? Or just Old Testament -- an eye for an eye? Some centuries have passed since that was the law of the land. Seeing our American “civilized” youth acting in such a degrading and abhorrent manner makes one realize that they have been brought up on “Survivor” and other such unhuman media shows. The inexcusable atrocities perpetrated by our countrymen violate our common humanity.

Constance Fitzgerald

Los Angeles

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It is interesting to listen to people’s shock and outrage over the abuses of Iraqi POWs while the same people are indifferent to the abuses of American citizens in American prisons. “This is not what America is all about.” Really? Maybe it’s time we take a look at ourselves.

Ken Castonguay

Redondo Beach

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This disgraceful stain on the nation will take years, if not a generation, to redeem. Our image around the world has been severely tarnished. I weep for our country.

Lucy M. Borik

La Palma