Andrew Sullivan's quote of the day features the remarks of one of our greatest Presidents:

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out where the strong man stumbled, or where a doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, and who comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause. The man who at best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, fails while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who never knew victory or defeat." - Teddy Roosevelt.

The slaughter of Nick Berg should snap us out of our funk over the acts of the unprincipled prison guards at Abu Ghraib. We now clearly see the hand of the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq in action, and it is the hand of a monster. I looked at still images of the murder on the web earlier this week, and was shocked. I didn't want to watch the video. However, while driving home, I accidentally turned to a radio station that at that very moment started to play the audio of the murder. It was the most horrible thing I have ever heard. No human could commit that act. No other human could fail to condemn that act.

Our enemy is not human. That is, not in the sense that humanity has come to mean in the civilized world. Fanatic is not a sufficient description of them. The Memri web site has a transcript of part of the first recorded remarks made by Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi. He is the author of the letter to fellow Islamics calling for reinforcements, saying that the US-led coalition was defeating Al Qaeda, the B'aathist remnants, and the other insurgents in Iraq. His rhetoric has obviously escalated in its mad call for murder by any means; the more, the better.

Civilization cannot ignore these monsters. We cannot show weakness, or uncertain resolve. We must steel ourselves for the long slog to win, and win decisively. They are patient, they are determined, and they are usually skilled in using propaganda to try to make their point. At times, our domestic media seems more of an outlet for their cause than ours since it seems to take the statements of these monsters at face value while questioning the genuine resolve and honest intent of the President's. I can only hope that the legacy of Nick Berg's last moments captured in that video will be a call to arms to the sane part of humanity to act in the defense of the civilized world. There must be an end to them, or they will make an end to us.