Surfing the net to read the latest dispatches posted on Empire Notes, I just came across an item reading: "Salon.com has posted the video of the Beheading of Nicholas Berg. You need Windows Media Player to view it. It’s extremely difficult to watch."

I just watched it (two minutes ago), and yes, it is difficult to watch, but what’s worse is the hair-raising feeling you have after having just seen it. I feel dirty, and my heart is beating too fast and hard. My advice to the reader is: Do not watch it.

My wish for Bush is that he does watch it.

This man in the White House, for whom war appears to be no more real than a video game, for whom war’s toll, blood and death, brings forth teenage outbursts of "Bring ‘em on!"; this man does not understand the horror of war, the sick violence that is begat and unleashed.

Bush is a child.

Watch this video, Bush: Beheading of Nicholas Berg. Maybe you might just grow up and realize that war something we should try to avoid.

Michael Leon is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. He can be reached at: maleon@terracom.net.