[COLUMN] Saddam won't be last to die

The butcher of Baghdad is dead.

Saddam Hussein was tried by an Iraqi court and sentenced to die. His appeal was heard and denied. Iraqis executed him in an Iraqi execution chamber by hanging in accordance with Iraqi law and tradition. U.S. military officials held Hussein as long as they could to prevent him from being tortured before his execution.

Yet, somehow, the world found a reason to criticize the United States for the execution because some Iraqis present for the hanging taunted the former strongman.

The ironic thing is, the world knows the United States would have handled the trial and execution differently. We prove it every day as criminals sentenced to die thrive for decades on death rows. And when the government does execute a criminal, it is usually by a lethal injection that puts the convict to sleep before gently stopping his or her heart.

We don’t shoot them to death or break their necks on the end of a long rope.

Nor do we taunt them before they die. In fact, we give them a choice for their last meals and allow them to visit with family before they die.
I imagine the abuse the United States takes, much of it admittedly deserved, is akin to the abuse the Romans took when its legions reached their peak of power under Emperor Trajan early in the second century. People have to blame someone and the person with the biggest stick usually makes the best target, right or wrong.

While the international blame was to be expected, the reaction of U.S. officials to the taunting during the hanging was surprising and demonstrates just how clueless American officials are when it comes to dealing with the Islamic world.

Somehow, to them, they think the taunting might demonstrate that Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s Shiitic government might not be serious in combating the Shiitic militias.

Well, duh!

U.S. government officials fail to realize the level of hatred between the Sunni and Shiites. This battle between the two major sects of Islam has been raging since the seventh century. For more than 1,300 years, Sunni and Shiites have been killing each other. They will continue to kill each other until one sect wipes out the other.

There is no problem with that. If the Muslims want to kill each other over their petty differences let them. We can do nothing about it even if we wanted to.

There is absolutely no military solution to the problem. So what is Bush likely to do this week to solve the Iraqi quagmire?

Propose to send more troops!

This Islamic problem further proves the genius of our Founding Fathers in insisting on a separation between religion and the government. Nearly every problem facing Islam today is a result of its intermixing with government and its idiotic belief that religious rules should carry the force of law.

But what more can you expect from a religion that was founded more as a political/military movement by a warlord determined to exact monetary tribute from surrounding tribes?

Unlike today’s Islamic leaders, the prophet Mohammed was at least pragmatic. He only killed infidels when it was economically prudent. Nor did he particularly care about the Islamization of those he conquered because that would mean a reduction in the tribute from those lands. Additionally, today’s Mohammedan leaders have long forgotten the prophet’s warnings against killing other Muslims.

In fact, Islamists have been fighting the West and each other for so long, they can’t even fathom the word peace.

So why does President Bush continue to insist that Americans must die in this silly religious infighting between Islamists when even military leaders are convinced they cannot put an end to the sectarian violence? That is as ridiculous and tragic as the centuries-long dispute itself.

Hussein might be dead, but he certainly won’t be the last casualty in the Sunni/Shiite conflict.

The only question is, now that more than 3,000 Americans are dead, how many more must die before this country’s politicians realize that it will take more than military might to put an end to the sectarian violence in the Islamic world. It will take an act of Allah.