Saddam Hussein Hanged! Now What?

This morning I spent watching the AFN News station (Hannity & Colmes and Gretta) and monitoring the newswires for news of Saddam’s fate. It was finally reported that Saddam Hussein was dead, hanged for crimes against humanity. This event occurred about 1:00 p.m. on 30 Dec in South Korea, which would be about 7:00 a.m. on 29 Dec in Iraq.

So it’s done! What does this mean? There’s been a lot of hand-wringing in the news about the backlash this execution will cause. There’s concern the insurgents will employ more IEDs and snipers will target American servicemen and Iraqi civilians. I got news for you folks, they’re doing that already! According to the Washington Post, almost 3,000 American servicemen have died since the war began in 2003. So, why the big concern about backlash? Personally, I don’t think the insurgents have the capability to mount a large-scale, coordinated offensive. They simply don’t have the resources available in the area. The main reason for this is a considerable U.S. presence.

Now, I believe the U.S. has allowed this supposed war to continue for much too long. We are far removed from the liberating force we were in the early days of “Shock and Awe” and are now an occupying force. Although we intend to turn the security of Iraq over to their elected government some day (soon?), the bottom line is the U.S. is in the Middle East for the long haul. We have to be. A stable Middle East is in our national interest. We’ll never leave.

I’m not saying I don’t support the U.S. in this endeavor, I do. My concern lies in our method. Sun Tze wrote over 2,000 years ago that

When doing battle, even if you are winning, if you continue for a long time it will dull your forces and blunt your edge; if you besiege a citadel, your strength will be exhausted. If you keep your armies out in the field for a long time, your supplies will be insufficient.

After three years, this is where we are! This is what happens when you try to fight a war with limited objectives. This is what happened in Viet Nam and is what Iraq has become. Have we learned nothing from the past? Evidently not. And while I’m at it, why do we say “we’re at war”? Congress never declared it! In fact, the last time the U.S. declared war was against Japan and Nazi Germany in 1941. Since then, we’ve had “conflicts”…the Korean conflict, the Viet Nam conflict, etc. so on…

After America was attacked by Arab terrorists on September 11, 2001, we had an opportunity to do this the right way. President Bush even spelled it out when he said we were at war with terrorism. He put the world on notice that if you harbor terrorists, you were an enemy of the U.S. He should’ve asked congress for a declaration of war. It would’ve been a declaration of war, not against a specific country, but rather against an act–terrorism, the result of using violence or the threat of violence, often perpetuated against the innocent, to obtain a political or religious goal. Unprecedented? Yes! Inconceivable? Certainly not!

Instead, Congress delegated its responsibility to declare war to the President by giving him carte blanche ability to engage those responsible for the terrorist attack on America. So much for Constitutional checks-and-balances, eh? Now we still have men and women on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq and we’re posturing against Iran. When will it end? Who or what are we actually fighting against? I’m not sure anymore. We don’t seem to be taking the offensive, that’s for sure.

Anyway, Saddam is dead. Was his execution justified? Without a doubt, it was! Will it change things in the Middle East? I don’t think so.