« Romney Endorsements | Main | Deep Thoughts....not »
January 28, 2008
Inside the Mind of Saddam Hussein
by Jack Lee
It's said we are all three people. Who we think we are, who others think we are and who we really are. In the case of Saddam Hussein we see another revealing facet of his persona thanks to an FBI interrogator, George Piro, who spent 7 months with him as the sole interviewer. Here are some of Piro's stunning revelations. Many would conclude this is the real Saddam Hussein.
Based on Piro's interveiw we see Saddam as a man of great pride and patriotism, constantly walking a tight rope between chaos and order, between Shiites and Sunni, Jews and Christians, Kurds and Iraqi's, all within his own country. Pre-war Iraq was arguably one of the most westernized and progressive of Middle East countries prior to the 1991 war, and this is despite Saddam's iron fist rule and his penchant for exterminating his enemies, in particular the Kurds.
Iran, then as now, represented a mortal threat to Iraq. Much of Saddam's miscalculations and misdeeds can be blamed on his paranoia about subversive Iranian agents within his country and Iran's military forces poised on their shared border.
In the Arab world a leader is only as strong as he is perceived to be. And the leader lasts only as long as he is perceived as strong. This is Saddam's world and he survived by fear and force like a Mafia Don. This meant that no personal slight, political challenge or insubordination could go unpunished, otherwise his tenuous control would be compromised.
When concerns that Kuwait was slant drilling for oil into Iraqi territory developed and there was a problem with the repayment of Kuwaiti loans, Hussein dispatched his envoy to meet with Kuwait's Emir al-Sabah. The meeting was anything but productive. The Emir not only refused to negotiate, he tendered a personal insult saying he "would not stop what he was doing until the last Iraqi woman was reduced to a $10 whore."
This is what Saddam heard the next day in Baghdad and he flew into a fit of rage! The audacity of the Kuwaiti Emir al-Sabah was too much! This leader of a pip squeak country had long been an irritation to Iraq's access to the sea and was posibly stealing Iraqi oil and now he dared insult his nation? It might just as well have been a declaration of war and that is exactly what happened next as Iraq invaded in 1990. This was likely done for a number of reasons, but in the mind of Saddam it was done because an extreme insult.
We were led to believe that Iraq's aggression was based on expansionism. That Saddam saw himself as the "Lion" of ancient prophecy that would wage war and eventually unite the Arab world as one. Perhaps so, but, for now Saddam was only responding to an insult that could not go unchallenged. The violence and pillaging of Kuwait was somewhat easier to understand given the revelation of the Emir’s provocation.
Prior to the Kuwaiti invasion, Iraq had been engaged in an 8 year long war with Iran over the disputed border along the Shatt el Arab canal. This war was not fought for conquest either; it was an issue with an arch enemy that was taking liberties with Iraq's border, it was a matter of pride and sovereignty.
According to 60 Minutes transcript from Jan 27th, "The U.S. ejected Saddam from Kuwait, leaving the dictator with no love lost for the Bush family. He didn't like President [George W.] Bush. He would have liked meeting President Reagan. He thought he was a great leader. Honorable man. He liked President Clinton. But he did not like President Bush, the first or the current," Piro says.
On WMD's, Saddam said most of them were destroyed by UN inspectors following the end of the 1991 war and the rest were destroyed by the Iraqi government. However, he felt it was in his nation's best interest (and national security) to make it appear that he still had WMD's to keep Iran at bay. And apparently this fooled Iran despite with hundreds of Iran's secret agents inside Iraq. This is a key disclosure and it should lay to rest the allegations that George W. Bush deliberately created false and misleading statements about Iraq's WMD's stockpile just so we could invade for oil or whatever else the left has conjured up. Iraq fooled even Iran and the USA had far less intel access than Tehran.
Saddam admitted he deliberately obstructed UN inspectors and played a cat and mouse game just to satisfy his WMD charade. According to Piro, Saddam miscalculated and "...thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998 . . . a four-day aerial attack." He honestly did not expect the US to wage full on war and invade all the way to his capital. It was Saddam's intention to absorb the air strikes, then work out a diplomatic sort of stand off that would allow him to keep his prestige and the WMD perception going.
Saddam's long range plans were to eventually restart his full WMD program, including nuclear development after the bombing campaign ended. This statement confirms the honest rational for invasion as stated by President Bush and it would appear very reasonable given the perception of the dangers, however it could be argued that his timing was off due more too Iraqi obstruction to UN inspections than to US aggression.
Biography in Brief
Born on April 28, 1937, in Tikrit, the seat of the Saladdin Province where he finished his primary school.
· Married with five children: two boys and three girls.
Academic:
· Escaped to Syria and thence to Egypt where he completed his secondary school studies in 1962.
· Admitted into the College of Law in Cairo and attended in the period 1962-1963.
· Having completed his third and fourth year of studies, following the July 17th Revolution, he obtained a graduate degree from the College of Law.
· On February 1, 1976, he was awarded a Master of Art Honors Degree in Military Science together with the Staff Degree.
· In 1984, the University of Baghdad awarded him Honorary Doctorate in Law.
Political Career:
· Joined the Arab Baath Socialist Party (A.B.S.P) in 1956
· Arrested and imprisoned for six months, while he was a secondary school student, over the years 1958 and 1959 for his political activities against the regime at the time. He took part in the revolutionary operation against the dictator Abdul-Karim Qassim who was Prime Minister in 1959. The operation resulted in the dictator receiving several shots. Saddam Hussein was wounded in the leg as a result a shot fired from a bodyguard.
· Sentenced to death in absentia on February 25, 1960.
· Returned to Iraq after the 14th of Ramadhan Revolution (February 8) 1963.
· Discontinued his studies at the college, when in 1963 he had to return to Baghdad to lead the revolutionary struggle against the reactionary draconian regime that had previously toppled the Baath Government.
· He was not spared by the round-up campaign waged by the authorities that began on September 4, 1964. He was arrested on October 14, 1963, with charges relating to his leadership of the Baath Party's struggle against the backward regime.
· While he was under arrest, he completed and passed his first year studies at the College of Law.
· Elected as member of the Baath Party's Pan-Arab National Leadership in 1965 while still under arrest.
· In September 1966, he was elected Deputy-Secretary General of the Baath Party Leadership in Iraq.
· Escaped from prison in 1967, to resume the leadership of the Baath Party struggle. He was once again obliged to discontinue his studies because he was chased by the secret police.
· On July 17,1968, mounting the first tank that besieged the headquarters (the Presidential Palace) of the head of the regime, he led a group of Party members that forced their way into the palace in order to overthrow the reactionary regime. Saddam Hussein played a leading and key role in planning and then carrying out the Revolution that day.
· On July 30, 1968, he was personally in charge of a swift operation to purge the new government of the July 17 Revolution of certain of the old regime's figures, who for purely tactical reasons, cooperated with the Baath Party revolutionaries.
· He all but officially undertook the role of Vice-Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council as early as July 1968; but was constitutionally elected for the post of Vice-Chairman on November 9, 1969.
· On June 1, 1972, he led the process of nationalizing Western oil companies that had the monopoly of Iraq's oil.
· On July 1, 1974, he was dubbed the rank of Lieutenant General and awarded the Rafidain Order, First Class (of Military type).
· He played a principle role in formulating and implementing the Autonomy Law for the Kurdish citizens on March 11, 1974.
· On October 8, 1977, he was elected Assistant Secretary General of the National Pan-Arab Leadership of the Baath Party.
Presidential Career:
· On July 16, 1979, he was elected Secretary General of the Regional Leadership of the Baath Party in Iraq, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, and President of the Republic of Iraq.
· On July 17, 1979, President Saddam Hussein was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal.
· On October 8, 1979, he was elected Deputy Secretary General of the National Pan-Arab Leadership of the Baath Party.
· On September 4, 1980, President Saddam Hussein led the Iraqi people and the Army wisely and bravely against the aggression initiated and launched against Iraq by Ayatollah Khomeini's regime. The war ended in Iraq's great victory on August 8, 1988.
· On July 30, 1983, he was dubbed the Revolution Order First Class.
· On April 28, 1988, he was dubbed the Order of the people.
· President Saddam Hussein actively led the modernization of the Iraq economy, urging the construction of various developed industries and following their administration and execution. He also supervised the modernization of Iraq's countryside, the mechanization of agriculture, and the distribution of land to farmers. He effected a comprehensive revolution in energy industries as well as in public services such as transportation and education. He also initiated and led the National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy and the implementation of Compulsory and Free Education in Iraq.
· Led his country in confronting the aggression launched by 33 countries led by the US that waged war against Iraq. The Iraqis' confrontation that is called by Arabs and Iraqis 'The Mother of all Battles' (Um Al-Maarik), is where Iraq stood strong against the invasion, maintaining its sovereignty and political system.
Published Works:
· President Saddam Hussein has published several works in the intellectual, political, economic, military, social, and educational fields. They are available in translation from Arabic in the basic world languages.
Posted by Post Scripts at January 28, 2008 08:52 AM