Overview:

Saddam Hussein was President of the Republic of Iraq from July 1979 to February 2004.

Early Life:

Saddam was born in the village of Ouja, near Tikrit in northern Iraq. He was the son of a landless peasant who died before Saddam was born. After his fathers death, Saddam lived briefly with his mother’s second husband, Ibrahim Hassan. It’s alleged that Hassan beat Saddam frequently but, in any case, Saddam was soon sent to live with his maternal uncle, Khairallah Talfah. Talfah was an ex-British colonial officer who nursed a grievance with pro-Western elements in Iraq due to his mistreatment in the army. Talfah had a profound influence on young Saddam instilling in him a strong sense of Arab nationalism and the mental toughness that Saddam would exhibit throughout his career. Saddam also displayed an early penchant for violence culminating in the murder of a local school teacher.

Early Political Career:

In 1956, at the age of 19, Saddam joined the Iraqi branch of the Arab Ba’th Socialist Party which had been formed in secret in 1950. While it had some socialist platforms the party’s main attraction for men like Saddam was its fierce nationalism and professed mission of ending Western colonialism in the Arab world. Saddam was an enthusiastic member and was sentenced to a 6 month prison term for activities against the current regime in 1958. Not intimidated in the least, Saddam participates in a coup against then prime minister, Abdul Karim Qassim, only months after his release. The coup attempt failed and Saddam received a bullet wound in the leg from the prime ministers bodyguards. Although Saddam escaped with his life he was force to flee the country going first to Syria and then Egypt. He was subsequently sentenced to death in absentia.

While in Egypt, Saddam finished his secondary studies and waited for an opportunity to return to Iraq. Such an opportunity came with the Ba’thist "Ramadan Revolution" of 1963. Saddam rejoined the party’s leadership but Ba’th party factionalism, principally between pan-Arab and Iraqi nationalists, and a persistent regionalism threatened to tear the party apart. Accused of plotting against fellow party members, Saddam quickly found himself back in prison. His support in the party, however, remained high. While still serving his term, Saddam was elected Deputy Secretary General of the Ba'th Party. Seizing on his popularity, Saddam did not finish out his sentence but escaped in 1967. By July of 1968, Saddam had been actively involved in yet two more coup attempts the second of which was successful. That same year, he received full responsibility for internal security, and graduated from the College of Law.

Saddam’s march to power gained impetus when he was formally elected Chairman of the Revolution Command Council, where he formed an alliance with his second cousin, Ahmad Hassan Bakr, the council's chairman. Eliminating the infighting and disorder that had plagued the first Ba’thist regime became the top priority of the second. Iraq is a polyglot nation comprised of often hostile Arab Sunni, Kurdish Sunni, Assyrian Aramaic-speaking Christians), Turkoman and Arab Shiite camps. Tribal conflicts, conflict between secular nationalists and religious fundamentalists, class conflict, and conflict between the rural tribes and the popular urban sectors had also been pervasive. The primary support for the new Ba’thist government and for Saddam came from the middle classes in the center of the country. They were nationalist in their outlook and were eager for Iraq to emerge as a more modern state. While their loyalty to the Ba’thist regime was solid the problem was that this sector of Iraqi society accounted for only a fifth of the entire population.

With Saddam in the forefront, the new regime embarked on a two-pronged campaign to ease social tensions by alleviating the poverty that exacerbated them and to strengthen the party internally. The Ba’thists became the first government in the history of the region to provide universal free schooling up to the highest education levels. They also supported families of soldiers killed in war; granted free hospitalization to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers. On June 1, 1972, Saddam led the process of nationalizing also helped initiate the modernization of the Iraqi economy by encouraging the construction of various developed industries and following their administration and execution. He also supervised the modernization of the Iraqi countryside, the mechanization of agriculture and the distribution of land to farmers. All told, the regime made great progress in its efforts to build roads, establish mechanized agriculture, and promote mining and other industries to diversify the oil-dependent economy. Meanwhile, Saddam also made moves to consolidate his power. Carefully cultivated relationships with other prominent Ba’th party members won Saddam a powerful circle of friends.

However, as ideal as the Ba’athist party advances sound, there was a dark side as well. It is not a small feat to hold a polyglot nation to-gether and reforms alone are not enough; violence was also used and quite a lot. Opposition was often subjected to torture and other forms of brutality, especially Kurds, who were constantly oppressed by Hussein. Kurdish leadership would find itself constantly threatened by politically motivated murders, with many others exiled with their families.

When an uprising of Kurdish rebels (supported by Iran) broke out in 1974, Hussein’s cruelty became unbounded, totally destroying the Kurdish cities of Sakho and Qala’at Diza and resulting in the disappearance of more than 8000 civilians. In 1975 the war was over, and the border between Iraq and Iran agreed upon mutually, with large numbers of Kurds streaming into Iran.

Hussein also commenced a campaign of terror against the Schi’a Moslems, expelling approximately 80,000 to Iran, while their property and assets were seized by the Iraqi government. In the same year, many Shiite priests, politicians, etc. were executed during an ethnic cleansing of Shiites who were assumed to be members of the Da’wa party. Communists were also executed in large numbers, reportedly over 7000 with party headquarters eventually closed down by the government in 1979

Meanwhile within the Ba’ath Party, dissent would continue; on 16 July 1979 ascended to the presidency, driving out Al-Bakr, who was a former friend of Saddam’s. Among other titles, Hussein became President of the Republic, and Chief of Staff of the military, purporting that Al-Bakr was planning to hand Iraq over to Syria; this would be enough of an excuse to consolidate and solidify his power in the party, but also a good enough excuse to bring about the execution of Al-Bakr and several hundred of his followers. Thus became Hussein’s power in the party absolute, which was quite an achievement. In time, relations with Syria and Iran would deteriorate, as well as Hussein’s image internationally despite internal reforms. This would eventually bring about his downfall.

On 17 September 1980 Hussein publicly tore up the Algiers Accord with Iran, citing Iran’s frequent and overt attacks on the sovereignty of Iraq, and only five days later was the Iraqi Air Force striking Iranian targets, while the Iraqi infantry poured into Iran. Fighting would be seen first in the oil-rich Khuzestan region, given to Iran by the Ottoman Empire and whose Iranian control had angered Iraqis for decades. Hussein had promised to lead Iraq to be the leading power in the Middle East, and a war with the hated Persians appeared to appeal to his public.

And the time for action was ripe, for the revolution and the expulsion of the Shah in Iran in 1979, and consequently the rise of the Islamic fundamentals would be of great concern to Western nations. Hence Saddam relied on massive assistance from western countries, which was logical, bearing in mind that much would have been to gain by toppling the Mullahs, In fact, Saddam’s accusations against the Iranians were not completely unfounded; Iran had in fact supported Kurdish factions to cause trouble with the BA’athists. Iran, finding itself now largely isolated diplomatically would find itself a very convenient enemy, who few countries would try to assist. However one key false assumption of Hussein’s was that the Iranians would revolt against the Ayatollah to bring back the Shah.

As the war began, Iraqi forces would easily defeat the totally unprepared Iranian army, driving deeper and deeper into the country; but soon it became evident that the Iranians would fight like tigers after re-grouping. Shah loyalists never appeared; in fact, the opposite occurred, with many Iranians rallying around the new Khomeini government as being much less reprehensible that Iraqi occupation.

Soon Iranian forces would win the upper hand, driving the Iraqis back out of Iran in 1982; Hussein would now make many peace overtures, which would in turn be ignored by the Iranian government, leaving the rest of the war to be fought on Iraqi soil. Six years later, in August 1988 with a huge number of casualties and dead (approximately 1.5 million dead) would the war end, with both sides suffering huge losses. Hussein notably used poison gas against the Kurds and was alleged to have committed many war crimes, with his offensives against the Kurds inflicting casualties in the hundreds of thousands. The economies of both countries were both almost ruined, as both sides had attacked each other’s oil production infrastructure, leaving production severely damaged.

Nevertheless, Iran was able to finance the war, while Iraq was now saddled with huge debts; for example debts to Kuwait were $14 million, which was certainly a factor in determining Hussein’s decision to attack the kingdome later. All in all the war war undecided, leaving the borders of both countries largely unchanged.

In 02 August 1990 Iraqi troops would invade Kuwait, declaring the kingdom the 19^th Province of Iraq before the month’s end, giving Iraq control over 20% of the world’s oil supply. This led to a military coalition, approved by the UN Security Council to strike at Iraq if all forces were not withdrawn from Kuwait by 16 January 1991. Saddam duly ignored the deadline, subjecting Iraq to round the clock bombardment by the Allies by air, while Coalition group forces raced into the country. By February 1991, Iraq had been completely expelled from Kuwait and 175.000 Iraqi troops would surrender and Iraqi deaths could have totaled as much as 100.000. Although Saddam did stay in power, this was under the condition that Iraq would cease and dedist from all development of unconventional weapons, also agreeing to let UN weapons inspectors stay in the country to monitor these activities.

In 1998 Saddam expelled all UN weapons inspectors from Iraq, touching off more tensions between his regime and the world community, especially with the USA. Between 16-18 December of 1998, the USA and UK would again pound Iraqi targets in Operation Desert Fox. After much political jockeying between the USA and Saddam Hussein regarding weapons of mass destruction over the following years the die was cast once and for all after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centrwe, which led to the expulsion of the Taliban from Afghanistan.

Hussein called an election in 2002, in which he was re-elected by 99,99% of the voters, obviously under the scrutiny of many Western countries. Allegations of weapons of mass destructions from the USA and the UK were heating up to the point that an invasion ofIraq was inevitable. After an ultimatum from George W Bush for Saddam to leave the country immediately of be expelled was ignored, the end was near. On 20 March, 2003 another coalition force struck Iraq hard, causing the collapse of the country within three weeks, with Baghdad falling on 09 April 2003. Hussein fled the city, going into hiding until his capture on 13 December, 2003.

Since his capture, Saddam Hussein’s trial for crimes against the Iraqi and Kuwaiti people have been delayed numerous times, and he has consistantly attacked the legitimacy of the courts and their right to try him.

Original article by www.dictatorofthemonth.com written in January 2006- all rights reserved

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