By Travis Little

Some of you have seen the infamous video, others have perhaps clicked through a few pictures. The rest of you may wish you could avoid the story completely. The horrifying decapitation of an American civilian in Iraq last week has elicited a variety of responses in America. Some might say it has exposed a widening rift in American politics.

For me and the sane half of America, this event holds many similarities to the events of September 11, 2001. But this murder, combined with the news of prison abuse at Abu-Ghraib, seems to have brought out the worst in some Americans. They hold up the video and say, "that's what you get for going to war!" and say "Nicholas Berg died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld." Blame seems to fall everywhere except on those disgusting creatures who committed the act of brutally removing Nick Berg's head.

The anti-Americanism of the American political left is appalling. And those who excuse the Berg murderers deny the facts. If it was an act of retaliation against American abuse of prisoners at Abu-Ghraib, what justified the gory beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002? Was it a pre-emptive strike, perhaps?

On the opposite side is what I like to call sane America. They see evil for what it is. They don't revel in the carnage like irreverent gawkers, but they want America to see the true face of the enemy with whom we are engaged, so we may unite and eradicate it from the earth.

They must do this because half of America still wants to bring their country to its knees in the face of Islamic militants. They want to bring down the Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of Defense, when we should be more worried about our very safety in the face of our determined foes. On the day after news broke of the sickening Berg murder, the news media continued to play politics.

A caller to a Salt Lake City radio show on Monday morning called the publicizing of the killing "an attempt to drum up support for Bush". Please. The sane half of us is fighting for the freedom of all Americans, here, not just that of the Republican party. Even if you're a liberal, it is in your best interest to support the war on terror. Think of it this way: If we lose and Islamic militants take over the world, there will be no place for your abortion clinics, your homosexual marriages, or your libraries without internet filters. Yikes! Maybe it's time to support our troops and our cause.