FRAN KELLY: Does it alleviate your pain at all knowing that your son though, died in the cause of something he believed in?

MICHAEL BERG: No, it doesn't at all. I think it's a shame that he had to die because he's a man who does what he believes. I'm proud of my son, but it doesn't alleviate the pain. It's just a shame that in this world if you do what you believe in, you frequently do end up dead.

FRAN KELLY: Do you blame George Bush for your son's death?

MICHAEL BERG: Of course I do. Him and Donald Rumsfeld.

FRAN KELLY: Have you spoken to the Bush administration since your son's death? Have they spoken to you?

MICHAEL BERG: Yes to the first question, no to the second. I have spoken to them, I have stood in front of their houses and called out, I've asked him on the air publicly in the United States many times to please answer certain questions that I had for him.

I think mostly what I wanted to know was, was it true what the al-Qaeda said that they had offered to trade a life for a life for my son and that the United States refused. I'd like to know the answer to that.

I'd like to know from George Bush how he sleeps at night.

MICHAEL BERG: The only fruit of war is death and grief and sorrow. There is no other fruit. There is no democracy growing in Iraq, there is no freedom from torture in Iraq. I support our American troops, our American soldiers as human beings. I don't support the military mission.

http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2004/s1146077.htm

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