One of the four Americans butchered in Fallujah, Iraq, this Wednesday and hung from a bridge was a native of Ohio, my home state. His name was Jerry Zovko who lived outside Cleveland. What kind of man was he?

Zovko was [a] big, good-looking young man . . . . Born into a Croatian family that immigrated to Ohio, Zovko spoke several languages . . . and [he] had a knack for impressing with his smarts. He had attended Euclid High School in Willoughby and seemed to have found his calling in the elite ranks of civilian security experts playing such a large role in the U.S. presence in Iraq.

What strikes me most is the aplomb, courage, and dignity of a family that has to face the unspeakable: the death of one's child and under such horrific circumstances.

"It was the hardest day of my life," Zovko's mother, Donna Zovko, said during an interview with the Associated Press in her suburban Cleveland home. "Jerry was a man with a principle, an idea," she said. "He loved people. He wanted the world to be without borders, for everybody to be free and safe."

Notice how she doesn't even curse the enemies who murdered her son. She mentions her son in terms of affirmation, of the lives of others, and the well being of those in other parts of the world. How different from the fascism of the Saddamites who murdered her son.

Meanwhile, Paul Bremer, who I hope is not the weenie he appears to be, says the atrocities against American civilians in Iraq will not go unpunished.

The people of Fallujah, loyalists to Saddam Hussein, make it clear that they intend to fight. Well, at least we know who the enemy is.

On Thursday, Fallujah residents said they were ready to take on the Americans if they now try to enter the city.

"We wish that they would try to enter Fallujah so we'd let hell break loose," Ahmed al-Dulaimi said. "We will not let any foreigner enter Fallujah," said Sameer Sami. "Yesterday's attack is proof of how much we hate the Americans."

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt warns that he means business.

Kimmitt pledged to hunt down those who carried out Wednesday's killings, which were reminiscent of the televised abuse of the corpses of American soldiers in Somalia in 1993.

"We are not going to do a pell-mell rush into the city. It will be deliberate, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming. We will not rush in to make things worse. We will plan our way through this and we will re-establish control of that city and we will pacify that city."

I hope this is true. Yet I have a thought that makes me shudder. Can you imagine Kerry as president during this time and his constituents begging him to bring our troops home after such a slaughter of our own?