Beheading Video - for use in high schools?

Mad4stevie · #1 05-19-2004, 08:15 PM

I was wondering what opinion everyone here had about those teachers who got suspended for their advocacy of watching the beheading video of Nick Berg in Iraq.

I made the mistake of watching the video online, and it sickened me to the point that I could't eat dinner that night. Horrible, awful and disgusting. I don't know what I expected . . . but it was much, much more graphic and disturbing than I anticipated. I guess I think of a beheading as something that is quick and less painful than what I witnessed on this video.

Anyway - I think it is different for a teacher to mention a site where the video is and the person watches it on their own time. However, I do not think any student should be obligated to watch such a video for class.

Your thoughts??

greatdarkwing · #2 05-19-2004, 08:38 PM

NO ONE should have to watch this. I made the mistake of seeing Danny Pearl's video last year, and have since been warning people not to see that or this (I have not and will not see it).

~Alex

Mad4stevie · #3 05-19-2004, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greatdarkwing

NO ONE should have to watch this. I made the mistake of seeing Danny Pearl's video last year, and have since been warning people not to see that or this (I have not and will not see it).

~Alex

Yeah - I saw the Pearl video too, but this one was much worse . . .

greatdarkwing · #4 05-19-2004, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

Yeah - I saw the Pearl video too, but this one was much worse . . .

Thank God I havent seen this one. These types of things just infuriate me.

~Alex

wondergirl9847 · #5 05-19-2004, 09:12 PM

I saw a scene from a movie the other day on TV and it disturbed me for most of the day......I can't even IMAGINE watching THAT video.

jwd · #6 05-19-2004, 09:25 PM

If it was my kid that was subjected to that, I'd want that teacher's head, pun intended!

ShangriLaTroubl · #7 05-19-2004, 09:27 PM

I too made the mistake of watching this horrific and disgusting video online...It was literally the worst thing I have ever seen...I was speechless for hours...and I still feel uneasy thinking about it...

It was just absolutely horrible.
I don't think anyone should be forced to watch it...but IMO if the teacher merely gave out the URL and the students CHOSE to watch it on their on free time, the teacher really shouldn't be at fault...

Chris

Mad4stevie · #8 05-19-2004, 09:33 PM

I can't imagine what family members must feel about it . . . or if they would ever watch it in a million years . . .

I don't think I would want to watch it if it were a loved one of mine, but then again, sometimes your imagination is worse than reality (although not in this case, IMO).

ShangriLaTroubl · #9 05-19-2004, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

I don't think I would want to watch it if it were a loved one of mine, but then again, sometimes your imagination is worse than reality (although not in this case, IMO).

You are right...definetely not in this case..I thought that the way I had imagined it would probably look worse than the actual video--but no way in hell did I ever imagine it to be like that...I really thought it would be a quick death, and don't know why I chose to watch it in the first place... but instead it was painful and excruciating death...the death of an innocent man who struggled, literally, for his life

Chris

Mad4stevie · #10 05-19-2004, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShangriLaTroubl

You are right...definetely not in this case..I thought that the way I had imagined it would probably look worse than the actual video--but no way in hell did I ever imagine it to be like that...I really thought it would be a quick death, and don't know why I chose to watch it in the first place... but instead it was painful and excruciating death...the death of an innocent man who struggled, literally, for his life

Chris

Exactly. For me, I guess I think of a "beheading" as something done quickly.

What really, really freaked me out was all that chanting while they were, literally, sawing his head off. It was something that made me naseous and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Pure evil, IMO.

dissention · #11 05-19-2004, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

I was wondering what opinion everyone here had about those teachers who got suspended for their advocacy of watching the beheading video of Nick Berg in Iraq.

I made the mistake of watching the video online, and it sickened me to the point that I could't eat dinner that night. Horrible, awful and disgusting. I don't know what I expected . . . but it was much, much more graphic and disturbing than I anticipated. I guess I think of a beheading as something that is quick and less painful than what I witnessed on this video.

Anyway - I think it is different for a teacher to mention a site where the video is and the person watches it on their own time. However, I do not think any student should be obligated to watch such a video for class.

Your thoughts??

I think that the teachers should've sent out permission slips and made it an optional experience. However, I fail to really see the educational value in simply watching this tape. You can't just show it to a group of kids and ask "So, what did you think?" You have to put it into context and make sure the kids really know their stuff about this occupation. BUT - what was the assignment? No one's talking.

And if you want to read some heated debates about the Berg video got to the last five or six pages in the "Open Leter to Dubya" thread. It got rather heated and should make for some interesting reading. I will say one thing, though, and that is that those were not al-Qaeda men and it most definitely wasn't Zarqawi. And he was dead when they beheaded him.

strandinthewind · #12 05-19-2004, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissention

. . . I will say one thing, though, and that is that those were not al-Qaeda men and it most definitely wasn't Zarqawi.

FOUL

I think that is speculation based on what I think are loose conclusions (the color of the hands, the wedding ring, etc.). I mean I think it is hard to determine alot from that grainy video. But, that is my opinion and hopefully, we will one day know exactly who it was when they hopefully dcatch these people!!!!

dissention · #13 05-19-2004, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

FOUL

I think that is speculation based on what I think are loose conclusions (the color of the hands, the wedding ring, etc.). I mean I think it is hard to determine alot from that grainy video. But, that is my opinion and hopefully, we will one day know exactly who it was when they hopefully dcatch these people!!!!

You seem to be forgetting that Zarqawi was bombed out of his boots almost a year ago. They bombed him and he couldn't get out because his fake leg was off.

In any case, the whole video is fishy, we've agreed on that much.

It's even fishier considering he was detained by US forces for weeks, he worked at Abu Ghairib, he was wearing a US issued detainee jumpsuit in the video, and they mysteriously identified his body without the head (and he was a civilian, not military) two days before the killers posted the video. And the fact that the CIA and FBI went to the home of his family a few weeks before his murder and hounded them about Nick Berg makes me very uneasy. AND - the icing on the cake, US forces lied through their teeth and said that they never detained Berg, the Iraqi police did. For some reason, the Iraqi police say they never had contact wth him and Berg's family has emails from the CIA and the Pentagon saying that he was being held by US forces. And the biggest shocker is his tie to Moussaoui. That **** freaked me out.

Nothing adds up and it's all getting swept under the rug. We need to know the truth.

dissention · #14 05-19-2004, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

What really, really freaked me out was all that chanting while they were, literally, sawing his head off. It was something that made me naseous and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Pure evil, IMO.

http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/article.php?id=2785

"The experts who saw the video say that the man posing as Jordanian native Zarqawi does not speak the Jordanian dialect. Zarqawi has an artificial leg, but none of these murderers did. The man presented as Zarqawi had a yellow ring, presumably a golden one, which Muslim men are banned from wearing, especially so-called fundamentalists."

Jessica Leigh · #15 05-20-2004, 01:14 AM

oh my goodness.... i accidently watched it... somene sent me a link to the video on consumption junction... and I, thinking that stuff on CJ is normally funny, clicked on it...

now i am all consumed by this... i read that article you posted dissention... it's way freaky... nothing adds up... there seem to be so many questions...

what was Nick Berg doing over there? i read that he owned some sort of company that has to do with radio towers or something? and he was there looking for work? and he was supposedly detained for having isreali stamps in his passport? he emailed saying he was detained by americans? but they deny it and say it was iraqis? ...but iraqis deny ever having contact with him? one thing i do trust about Iraqis is that they happily take full credit for the evil things they do... and they are condemning this?