From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

Bob Garfield is away. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

This week, a new picture of horror from Iraq.

American Nick Berg sits in front of a group of hooded men, his captors.

They announced that they will kill him in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib by the U.S. military, he's thrown to the ground and decapitated. Martin Walker is senior editor of United Press International, and he

joins me on a semi-regular basis to talk about what the world press is saying about America.

Hello, Martin.

Hello there.

So, first of all, what's been the response in the European press, both to the alleged

abuses at Abu Ghraib and also the beheading of Nick Berg?

Well, it's been pretty predictable.

I mean, there's been absolutely appalled reaction in many of the newspapers.

I was struck by the former East German newspaper, Dresden

Nashvichten. Now both sides have the visual proof to stigmatize the other as the villain.

Both now believe they are morally superior to the other. Such logic can lead only to the very clash

of civilizations we have been warned about. Another of the leading German

d'ivel is being very much more on the American side. It says that the terrorists don't need

to have a moral reason for their behavior because they don't have any morals. Now a competition

of visual horrors is breaking out, and the West, even though it is honest enough to be

transparent about its fault, will almost

certainly lose this war.

Well, what about the transparency of the process in America?

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