Tribune editorial staff

We were not shocked by the video or the images, but that doesn't mean we were not outraged by them.

In more recent years, Islamic extremists have demonstrated no problem with showing the world their barbaric actions - and bragging about it.

You cannot get much more barbaric than the videotaped beheading of 26-year-old Nick Berg, a communications contractor,

that splashed across terrorist group Muntada al-Ansar's Web site Tuesday.

The heartless bastards made him say his name, his parents' names, his brother's name, his sister's name, where he lived, and then they cut off his head - and held it up to a camera as if it were a trophy.

The terrorists claimed they were acting in retaliation for the

abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. Don't get us wrong. The abuse committed there by a handful of soldiers was not acceptable, but it is a far cry from this atrocious act.

Drawing a comparison between the two incidents is asinine. Berg's captors did not make him disrobe or pose for pictures in compromising positions. No, they cut his head off with a knife, videotaped it and then proudly posted the footage on a Web site for the whole world to see.

But this act is typical of terrorists. The group feasts on terrorizing others, and it is hard to imagine the terror that

Berg felt in those final moments as he realized his hooded captors were going to kill him. The cowards did not even have the guts to show their faces.

Contrary to their claim, the massacre of Nick Berg had nothing to do with Abu Ghraib. That was just an excuse. The situation at Abu Ghraib had not even come to light when Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and Italian hostage Fabrizio Quattrocchi were murdered by terrorists or when the bodies of four Americans were burned and mutilated and then strung from a bridge in Fallujah.

As this war unfolds, one thing is for certain: it is much better to be an enemy in American hands than an American in enemy hands. We would take humiliation over murder any day.