The Life and Times of Saddam Hussein

“The Skies over Baghdad have been illuminated” announced Peter Arnett of the CNN to a world audience of television viewers. The date: 17th Jan.1991 the time: 3 AM in Baghdad. The first salvo against Iraq had been fired by the coalition forces of 17 nations led by the United States. After 42 days of relentless air raids, a massive and continuous blitz from the air, followed by 100 hours of ground battle by the mighty juggernaut of the allied forces, the biggest army in the Middle East had been smashed. With an estimated 110,000 Iraqi soldiers killed, thousands of civilians dead and the military might of Iraq humbled and humiliated, operation Desert Storm had achieved everything except the elimination of Saddam Hussein, the Architect of the Gulf crisis. Defeated, humiliated and conclusively beaten in the “Mother of all Battles” Saddam Hussein survives still in command of his forces and his nation.
This tall, fair Arab leader with the penetrating eyes, who in the words of one Arab author “Speaks with the language of the poet” is still defiant, proud, haughty, still a challenge and a possible threat to all the nations allied against him. Saddam Hussein has been called many names- cruel, despotic, ruthless, power hungry, cunning, wily --- the list could be endless when left to the journalistic and linguistic jugglery of the Western media. The fact is this Arab leader is still relatively unknown.
The area between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in Iraq has been known as the birthplace of the worlds first known civilization and other early cultures. This large area was called Mesopotamia by the early Greeks which means “Between Two Rivers” It was in this area in a remote village on the outskirts of the town of Tikrit, on the banks of the Tigris river that Saddam Hussein was born on April 28th 1937. Coincidentally the famous Arab general Sultan Saladin Ayubi, the Muslim hero of the crusades was a native of this area too.
Very little or practically nothing is known about Saddam’s early life except that he was orphaned at an early age and taken care of by an uncle. Who was small farmer of watermelons, the traditional and ancestral profession of Saddam’s forefathers who were devout Muslims of the Sunni Sect for the last many generations. Saddam was nine years old when he started his formal education along with religious indoctrination according to the Sunni school of thought. At the age of 18 in 1955 Saddam left his village for Baghdad and took admission in Al-Karkh secondary school. Here he got his first taste of student activism and politics, which fired his political instincts and ambitions. It was here that he came into contact with the Arab Baath Socialist party. In late 1956, Saddam took part in a failed coup attempt against king Faisel and PM Nur-as-saeed , experiencing for the first time the violent and radical Arab politics. Soon after this mis- adventure Saddam Hussein joined the Baath Party in 1957.
In July 1958 the sun baked and blood soaked sands of Iraq witnessed another gory and bloody drama when the Heshamite King Faisel II and the entire royal family along with the Prime Minister Nur-as-saeed were massacred and General Karim Kassem became the new ruler and dictator of Iraq. Soon after seizing power Kassem started a witch-hunt to eliminate all individuals and groups who were a real or supposed threat to his regime. As a first step he aligned himself with the Moscow oriented communist party to counter balance the forces of pan Arabism as in Iraq these forces had collected under the banner of the Baath party. In Oct. 1959 it as decided by the Baath party eliminate Kassem.
A military like operation was planned. Saddam Hussein was nominated as the leader of a group of ten young men to execute the assassination plan. The operation failed, the driver of Kassems jeep was killed but Kassem escaped unhurt. Saddam Hussein got a bullet wound in his left leg in the resulting cross fire by Kassem’s bodyguards. Wounded and bleeding profusely the young Saddam showed tremendous courage and daring first by removing the bullet with a small pen knife and then by escaping across the desert into Syria riding on a donkey. As a result of this failed attempt on the life of Kassem Saddam Hussein was tried and sentenced to death in absentia by a military court.
After a brief sojourn in Syria Saddam Hussein was noticed by Nasir of Egypt, who, impressed by the courage and daring of this young man, arranged for his passage to Cairo where Saddam continued his education at the Al-Qasr-Al-Aini secondary school, graduating in 1961.
Still young and yearning for knowledge, Saddam entered the University of Cairo Law School in pursuit of higher education. He took care of his personal and education expenses with the aid of a small Govt. stipend courtesy of Gamal Nasir himself. In Egypt, the monarchy had been toppled by Gamal Nasir and his band of daring young officers. The Suez Canal had been nationalized resulting in war with Israel, Britain, and France with Nasir emerging as the most towering personality of the Arab world. He had become the symbol of Arab Nationalism, the hero and ideal of all Arab youths. After a long period of colonial rule, shame and humiliation suffered at the hands of the Jews and the colonial masters the Arab masses had somebody to look up to. Gamal Nasir stood out like a Messiah, a knight in shining armor, who would lead them to victory and glory. Saddam Hussein, too, fell under the spell of the charismatic Gamal Nasir and his dream of an independent Arab realm “From the Atlantic to the Gulf”
Gen. Karim Kassems reign came to an abrupt and inglorious end in Feb. 1963. After he was deposed and executed in a successful coup mounted against him, armed with education and experience, grown in years and wisdom, Saddam ended his life of forced exile and made tracks for home.
Immediately after his return he plunged himself in the task of reorganizing and revitalizing the Baath Socialist Party, which had suffered tremendously under the dictatorship of Kassem. Inspite of a heavy work load, along with tremendous psychological and physical pressures Saddam continued his law studies at the Al-
Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad. Saddam Hussein’s life still had more trials and tribulations in store for him. After the fall of the new Iraqi regime he had to go under ground once again in late 1963. Once again he was a hunted fugitive with a price on his head. He was tracked down by the state security agencies in late 1964, a gun battle ensued, Saddam fought like a man possessed and had to give up only after his ammunition had been completely exhausted. Arrested, tried and thrown into jail where he had to spend a greater part of two years. Even during his period of custody Saddam continued his studies and kept in constant touch with his political comrades all over Iraq. In 1965 while still in jail he was elected to the Bath Part’s eighth National Congress and in 1966 he was elevated to the post of deputy secretary of the party’s regional leadership. Immediately after regaining his freedom Saddam Hussein used all his talents and abilities to organize the party militia and the militant elements of his organization. His untiring efforts finally paid off when the Baath Party seized control of the Govt. in July 1968.
After the July ’68 coup, General Hassan-Al- Bakr became the Head of State and the Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. Saddam Hussein retained a low profile but in fact he was the real power behind the throne and for all purposes the de-facto ruler of Iraq. His career now took off in real earnest. In 1973 he was given the rank of Lieutenant General and Iraq’s highest military decoration, the Rifidain order. Three years later he was made a full general and awarded an MS degree in military science. Curiously enough all these ranks and honors for a man with no formal military training or education in military subjects, who in fact had been rejected by the military academy of Cairo on account of low grades. In1972, Under Saddam’s guidance all oil companies belonging to the USA, Britain, France and Holland were nationalized. Iraq now became one of the largest oil producers in the Middle East second only to Saudi Arabia. This was the period of the rapid rise in oil prices after the Arab- Israel war of 1973. Oil revenues now started to pour in at a astonishing speed, which made way for gigantic construction and development programs in communications, industry, agriculture, education, housing and health care.
Saddam Hussein’s most trumpeted achievement in the field of foreign relations was his visit to the Soviet Union in Feb.1972. During this visit he signed the fifteen years treaty of friendship and co-operation, thus making Moscow the biggest supplier of military hardware to Iraq.In 1973 there was an unsuccessful coup attempt by the chief of internal security. Saddam Hussein masterminded the subsequent mass arrests and execution as a result of which Iraq was classified as the worst violator of human rights by Amnesty International. Saddams honey moon with Communist party ended in another blood bath in 1978 when he ordered arrests and executions of 21 communist members of the armed forces on charges of subversion.
On 16th July 1979 Bakar made way for Saddam Hussein presumably on account of ill health. Saddam now became the Head of state, Chairman Revolutionary Command Council, Prime Minister, Supreme Commander Armed Force, and Secretary General of the Baath Party.
Iraq now became a classic example of a single party Totalitarian State with the hallmarks of cruelty, repression, and a complete disregard of human rights. Saddam started posing as a crude version of Joseph Stalin. Both came from rustic rural societies, fond of building up a personality cult and both in a tremendous hurry to build their countries into modern nation states, even if it required the use of extensive terror, violence and bloodshed. June 1980 saw the formation of the 250 members’ national assembly, which in fact was a rubber stamp parliament. All the legislation passed by this so-called assembly had to be ratified by the Revolutionary Command Council or in fact by Saddam Hussein himself who had the power to dissolve the assembly at his pleasure.
In a dramatic and emotional speech on Iraqi TV on September 17th 1980 Saddam Hussein tore up the treaty of Algiers and announced that the Shatt-al-Arab belonged to Iraq. Just five days later Iraq was at war with Iran when on Sept. 22 he launched massive air strikes on targets deep in Iran. Simultaneously six Iraqi divisions crossed the border and began a rapid advance into Iranian territory. The tide of war turned in March 1982 when the Iranians launched a successful counter offensive, captured Khurramshehar, drove the Iraqis back across the Shatt-al-Arab and took more then 20,000 prisoners of war. In June Saddam declared a unilateral cease-fire, which was rejected by Khomenie who demanded the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
This senseless war between the two Muslim nations finally ended in July 1988 with staggering losses on both sides and neither side achieving any of its objectives. There were over a million casualties and the economies of both countries were totally ruined. During the entire Iraq-Iran conflict Saddam was the blue eyed boy of the entire West who took great pains to inflate his ego, his treasury and his armed might. He was then perceived by the Western policy makers as the only counter force to the Iran of Ayatollah Khomenie who had openly challenged and defied the might of the Western democracies. The West got a rude shock when on 2nd August 1990 Iraq crossed the international border into Kuwait paving the way for Operation Desert Shield and finally Operation Desert Storm.
So far Saddam Hussein has given his people only blood, toil, tears, defeat and humiliations. History has yet to pass judgement on this man Savior or despot, hero or villain, Devil or Angel.