Saddam Hussein


Saddam Hussein is one of the most dreaded dictators in the 20th and 21st century. He was born on April 28, 1937 of a landless but famous family in al-Awaj village near Tikriton River Tegris in northwest of Iraq. He belongs to al-Khatab clan and later fabricated his genealogy to claim direct ancestral relations with Prophet Mohamed. His father abandoned his family before Saddam was born. Due to pressure, Saddam s pregnant mother attempts an abortion on an unborn Hussein and committing suicide but fails after an intervention by a Jewish family. After his birth, Saddam was placed under the care of Khairalla Tulfah (his maternal uncle) who was an army officer, passionate Arab nationalist and a sympathizer of the Nazi (Balaghi, 2008). His uncle was imprisoned for involvement in an attempted coup when Saddam was only three years of age. He was forced to rejoin his mother who had now remarried. His mother and stepfather abused and mistreated him and in 1947 when his uncle was released, Saddam ran abandoned his mother to live with him in Tikrit (Balaghi, 2008). He began his formal schooling and learnt how to read and write. After finishing primary education, Saddam moved to Bagdad to join his uncle once again and enrolled at Karkh high school where he began involvement in politics by joining Arab nationalist movement and later joined the Baath Party in 1957, which would later be his road to presidency.

Saddam s early life was full of difficulties as he grew up without parents. Not because they were dead, but because they abandoned him and his mother especially did not give him love. This traumatic experience at a tender age according to psychologists shaped Saddam to a ruthless Iraq leader. In addition, being in company of his uncle during his childhood and youth, Saddam experienced a myriad of activities that surrounded his army uncle and a supporter of Nazi. His uncle s involvement in criminal acts such as coup that landed him to prison influenced Saddam to engage in the same while in high school (Balaghi, 2008). In general, his family as perceived from his life his uncles, cousins was all involved in anti government movements. His uncle first recruits his nephew while still in high school to kill his distant cousin, a prominent communist in Tikrit where Saddam succeeds by a single shot in the head. The leader of Baath party and a cousin to Saddam first recruited Saddam in another Assassination plot to kill the communist sympathizing leader of the government of Iraq Brigadier Abdul Karim Qasim (Karsh and Inari, 2002). This time Saddam fails as he opens fire too soon although succeeded in injuring his target. These activities forced Saddam to go for exile in Syria and later to Egypt where he continued with his schooling.

Saddam admired the lifestyles of many dictators and while in Egypt, he met several Iraqis who had sought exile and became their leader. He was inspired by the theories of Joseph Stalin and he even boated that he would transform Iraq into a Stalin state. This kind of life is no doubt an important factor in development of a child. It determined who Saddam would be and evidently, he turned out to be a heartless dictator who could kill without remorse.

Besides being shaped by personal life, the environment, which Saddam grew up, was surrounded by a culture of power hungry individuals. The coups and assassinations were the order of the day. Saddam for instance, returned to Iraq after a coup in 1963, which put the Baath Party (his party) in power. Saddam joined them and worked under Baath s government security and also studied at the Bagdad College of Law (Karsh and Inari, 2002). This was also short-lived as they were overthrown by another coup. To cut things short, the Iraq society was divided along ethnic and political lines that instigated a series of conflicts that led to coups and assassinations. The country did not have at one time a sound leadership without invasion.

Saddam was forced to go into hiding but could visit his country regularly to see how things were working out. He was put in prison in 1964 where he was crowned the leader of Baath working as a deputy to Secretary General Bakr after escaping prison. In 1968, the Baath s returned to power through a bloodless revolution spearheaded by Saddam. The new Baath government was dominated by Sunni Iraqis of Tikrit origin with Bakr as the president and Saddam as the acting deputy chair of the RCC (Revolutionary Command Council) a very influential body in decision-making. In 1970, Saddam joins Baath party National Command where they establish measures to cement the party s power. The constitution was adjusted and Baath militia established by a clandestine surveillance network led by Saddam. Power within Baath party was shared among three Talfah family members Bakr, Saddam and the general Adnan Talfah a brother in law to Saddam, all from Tikrit (Karsh and Inari, 2002). In n1976, Saddam was ranked as a general in the Iraq army. During this period, Saddam was involved in a series of events including the purchase of weapons and development of nuclear and biological weaponry plants. He also suppressed the Kurdish who wanted autonomy and often triggered fight between the Kurdish and the government. The soviet union, France and Italy were the main suppliers of weapons to Iraq. Conflicts arose with Iran for assistance offered to Kurdish population. This was settled diplomatically with mediation of the United States.

The revolutionary Command Council passed presidential powers to Saddam on 11 July 1979 and president Bakr resigned 5 days later. Once in power, Saddam used malice to ensure that voting was not conducted within the party. He places Bakr under house arrest, summons the members of RCC with other Baath party officials in a conference at Baghdad where he unveils to them of a false coup plan by the audience. 66 traitors  are spotted, arrested and eliminated (Karsh and Inari, 2002). The victims are publicly executed to instill fear to others who would have such a plan. The purge of Saddam s party, his government and the military continued with hundreds of people being killed. Having silenced all the viable opposition, Saddam became the president, the commander in chief of the armed forces, secretary general of the Baath Party regional Command, and the chairperson of the RCC. He uses brainwash by establishing a personality cult for his  ultimate  leadership and achievements. Idols of Saddam dominated the streets, offices and even homes. State owned media spread praise of his name when any form of criticism meant death.

During his first year of presidency in 1980, a small religious based group, Iraq Shia, raised opposition from inspiration by neighboring Iran against Saddam s tyranny and attempted assassination of the cabinet. As a result, thousands of this people were deported to Iran while their leader, Ayatollah Khomeini was executed (Balaghi, 2008). Saddam also nullified the 1975 treaty over Shat-al Arab waterway claiming it as an Iraq territory. Iran air bases were bombed and Iraq soldiers moved to Iran through al-Arab which triggered the 8 year war between Iraq and Iran. Thousands of Iranian prisoners are executed together with Kurdish population. The domination of Iran in the war with support of the Kurds triggered the use of chemical weapon on the Kurdish population killing thousands of them. In 1987, Saddam carried out an operation to eliminate the Kurds who aided Iranian where thousands were indiscriminately executed. The United Nations intervened supported by the US for the use of chemical weapons. An attempt to assassinate Saddam in 1982 at Dujayl made him to separate himself completely from the public. In 1985, the western countries were affected when Iran and Iraq embarked on Persian Gulf attacks, which threatened oil production (Coughlin, 2005).

In 1990, Saddam enters a row with Kuwait claiming that the overproduction of oil by Kuwait was causing a decrease in price. He puts pressure on Kuwait to agree to his demands of redrawing boundaries, mitigating oil production and minimizing oil taken from areas stretching to Iraq, failure to which he would launch attacks. This was followed by an invasion of Iraq troops on August leading to deaths of thousands of Kuwaitis. The six weeks war continued with Saddam ignoring the call by the UN and 33 other nations including the US to withdraw his troops, which triggered the  Operation Desert Storm  (Coughlin, 2005). The war ended but a permanent cease-fire expected Iraqi to demolish all its biological, chemical, nuclear warheads and missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometers. Besides, Iraq could allow inspection to verify their compliance. Economic suctions and trade embargoes were put in place only allowing Iraq to trade a small proportion of oil to purchase food and medicine, but Saddam refused the offer.

Much of the 1990 s were difficult times for Iraq with Kurds being killed and heightened tensions across neighboring Kuwait and Iran despite the international efforts to settle the heat. In the year 2000, the United Nations and the United States had information that Iraq was still producing and harboring weapons of mass destruction against the agreement. This led to the invasion of a search team led by Richard Battler. However, the search was not a success as Saddam interfered with the process (Coughlin, 2005). By then, terrorist attacks targeted to the United States had posed a new threat. Iraq was given an ultimatum and by March 17, 2003, the US invaded Iraq supported by the UK and removed Saddam from power. He was arrested on June 2006 and was charged in the US ford was executed by hanging on November 5, 2006 mass killing of Kurds and other crimes. Iraq today enjoys peace that had for a long time been far from reality. The United Nations, Human Rights Council and the International community at large has placed warnings on tyrannous leaders.

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