The tragic incident, as most of us know, was committed as an act of retribution for the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by American troops, as documented in pictures and videos that recently surfaced. Nick Berg was a contractor in Iraq hired to assist with the rebuilding effort, an ordinary American boy next door who very unfortunately happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nick Berg could have been any one of us.

There has been plenty of controversy lately about teachers who let students view the video on school computers. Even students in little old Alabama got caught up in it. The local media made a big to-do about the so-called incident and interviewed traumatized parents and students.

One student said that it wasn�t something that was appropriate for high school students, or for the school setting, or something like that. As I recall, that was the same rationale we were given by our principal on September 11 when my high school was not allowed to watch news coverage of what would become the most important historical event of our lives.

A parent that was interviewed for the same news piece said that he was shocked that teachers would allow this behavior in classrooms. �It�s just too real,� he said.

Too real? Too real? The sight of people actually dying during a time of war is too real? This guy needs a reality check. Of course it�s too real, but we�re at war. Seriously. This isn�t some real life version of Risk that we�re engaged in. What will it take for people to realize this? These are people�s lives at stake, lives forever changed, families catapulted into a horrible state of limbo.

Families. While I watched the video with the Danwich and his mom, she commented that she didn�t even know Nick Berg and she was crying. How horrible his family must feel, she said. That�s an excellent observation, one we should all consider. How would we feel if it was our brother over there, not an enlisted man, but a prisoner and casualty of war nonetheless? As if their grief was not enough, now their loved one�s atrocious final moments have thrust them into the glaring national spotlight.

How do we feel that our friends and neighbors have dropped everything and gone overseas in the name of the American flag? Have we noticed or cared? No matter your feelings on the war (God knows I think it was a terrible and poorly executed idea � did someone say something about weapons of mass destruction?), its causes, its fallacies, we are in it. There is a huge difference between supporting the war and supporting the troops, one that is often argued about on the editorial pages of newspapers throughout this great nation. The bottom line is that these people are there in our names. They didn�t question anything, or if they did they kept it to themselves. They got the call and they did their duty. For that, they should be proud. We should be proud of them.

And we should honor their sacrifice. Refusing to air an edition of Nightline that consisted of a roll call of the American lives lost in Iraq simply because it provided no �context� for the viewer and could be seen as an antiwar sentiment was a cheap, disrespectful and shameful move that was more of a political statement in itself than was the actual program.

Fearing that the decency police will strip you of your broadcast license and shut you down because you dare to exhibit the true horrors of war to the people who need to see them most may be valid (especially in this election year), but it certainly isn�t American. Freedom of the press exists specifically for occasions such as this and it wouldn�t hurt for people to start making tough calls instead of constantly playing it safe.

Until recently, all these world events had been happening around me, but I never stopped to really think about it. The only cramp the war put in my style had to do with the ever-skyrocketing price of gasoline. I didn�t give a damn about Dennis Kucinich or his plan to get us out of Iraq; I didn�t have a dog in that fight.

Then I saw masked Iraqis slowly and painstakingly decapitate one of my fellow Americans, drowning out his screams with chants of �Allah!� My stomach did things I didn�t know it was capable of. I was disgusted to see what these people had done to one of my countrymen, an atrocity of war that may, shockingly enough, be perfectly acceptable now that everyone seems to be looking the other way on that whole Geneva Convention thing. For the first time since this nightmare began, the synapse in my brain finally fired and I realized what it truly meant that we were at war.

Is this the first time someone has been tortured in a war? No. Hell, it�s not even the first time that we know of someone being tortured during this war. This horrific behavior has been going on throughout history, but advances in technology have given us a unique opportunity to realize the true meaning of war without leaving our homes. Much as television revolutionized the Vietnam Conflict, so has the Internet changed the way the stories from Iraq are told to the world.

As desensitized as we are to everything violent, with our Kill Bill and our Mortal Kombat (God, no one even plays that anymore. You can tell I�m not up on the video games, anyway.), there are some things we will probably never be prepared for.

That�s why all the major networks, all the 24-hour cable people, should be airing this video in its entirety. Let everyone see that the Iraqis put his severed head on top of his body. These days, it seems as though you have to shock us into caring about anything. Given the cost in human life, this is one situation where shock value is a justifiable tactic.

Rest in peace, Nick Berg.