Like many of you, I've been deeply disturbed by the Nick Berg situation this week. Though I did not watch the video (nor will I), I saw a few of the still photos, and if anyone needed more proof that we're dealing with animals, this ought to provide it. Unfortunately, the media which has flogged the Abu Ghraib prison photos ad nauseum has gotten suddenly queasy about graphic content and evidently already wants to move away from the Berg story.

I absolutely agree with those I've heard who, recognizing the horror the Berg family has been through, are willing to give them a free pass on whatever they might say. But there is one statement I can't get out of my mind.

One story quotes Berg's father, an anti-war activist, saying:

"I am sure that he only saw the good in his captors until the last second of his life," Berg said. "They did not know what they were doing. They killed their best friend."

I have no idea what Nick Berg believed. Those who knew him seem to indicate that he was not particularly political. But I fear his father's statement reflects the naivete of those who think that radical Islam can be reasoned and negotiated with. They did know what they were doing. What Berg's father is failing to understand is that these terrorists have no friends.

They kill people. It's what they do. Many think that if we were just nice enough, just conciliatory enough, just helpful enough, terroristic Islam would be pacified and leave us alone. Well, that's not the way they work. Scott Berg once again has conclusively proved that. They kill their enemies. They kill their friends. They kill themselves. There is no befriending these people.

The Islamists didn't need to any instigation from prison photos or the war in Iraq to fly airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. They'll always find a reason to attack. The only thing that stops them is sheer, raw, brutal force.