# What if Nick Berg willingly sacrificed himself? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 14, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-nick-berg-willingly-sacrificed-himself/245072 "2004-05-14T04:37:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-nick-berg-willingly-sacrificed-himself/245072/21 "2004-05-15T02:19:00Z")
> [@](#): > > As opposed to the four burned, dismembered, corpses hanging over the highway? Exactly. They were dead before it happened to them too. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-nick-berg-willingly-sacrificed-himself/245072/22 "2004-05-15T02:22:32Z")
In the video Berg is shown sitting on the floor with the men behind him. If you want the world to see you kill this man you just pull his head back and start cutting. You don’t throw him face down on the floor and do your work out of sight of the camera. And why does the man named as doing the killing wearing a mask? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-nick-berg-willingly-sacrificed-himself/245072/23 "2004-05-15T02:27:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Exactly. > > They were dead before it happened to them too. Of course, we don’t have audio and video of those four people screaming as they died. :smack: > [@](#): > > If you want the world to see you kill this man you just pull his head back and start cutting. > > You don’t throw him face down on the floor and do your work out of sight of the camera. It’s not out of sight of the camera. And - here’s a part of the discussion I didn’t want to have - I’m guess it’s easier to do the cutting if he’s on the ground. And if he was already dead when they killed him, why push him down to the floor? ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-nick-berg-willingly-sacrificed-himself/245072/24 "2004-05-15T02:29:45Z")
> [@](#): > > And if he was already dead when they killed him, why push him down to the floor? That doesn’t make sense but I’ll answer it anyway. No arterial blood. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-nick-berg-willingly-sacrificed-himself/245072/25 "2004-05-15T02:30:19Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > And why does the man named as doing the killing wearing a mask? That was one of my first thoughts. Why go through the trouble of saying that you are Z, post the video somewhere saying that Z did it, but still hide your face. I suspected that someone wanted to be sure and get attention and used Z’s name. Now, I don’t know what to think. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-nick-berg-willingly-sacrificed-himself/245072/26 "2004-05-15T02:33:16Z")
There’s plenty of blood in the video, unless you’re telling me you can determine that it’s not arterial. 😕 **SimonX** , I don’t think the speaker identifies himself as Zarqawi. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-nick-berg-willingly-sacrificed-himself/245072.md?page=1)