Biography on Saddam Hussein

[tony_j15]

Cuttin' through the Bull #132
The Thug Who Owns A Country
By Ray Thomas Copyright © 2002
Published 09. 23. 02 at 7:45 Sierra Times

http://www.sierratimes.com/02/09/23/raythomas.htm


Much of the world calls Saddam Hussein a "leader." That's mostly because they are just like him, but not as good at it. He's not the "President of Iraq," he's simply a thug who was smarter than all the other thugs who wanted to run this country. He raped and murdered to come to power, and he continues to rape and murder to maintain it.
He was born on April 28, 1937. His father either ran off or died a short time later, depending on who tells the story. His mother's second husband, Ibraham Hassan, abused him and taught him how to be a thief. Then he was allowed to go and live with his uncle, Khrayrallah Tulfah, in Baghdad and began learning other things he would put to good use later. His uncle had been "cashiered" from the Iraqi army for supporting a "Pro-Nazi" coup attempt that failed. His uncle's bitterness toward the British and imperialism was soon transferred to Saddam. Some confidants point to his relationship with his uncle as a "turning point" in his political awareness and, when Saddam came to power, Tulfah became the mayor of Bagdhad. Saddam wanted to be admitted to the prestigious Baghdad Military Academy, but he was such a lousy student that his grades prevented it.

Saddam was involved in several unsuccessful coup attempts including the one against King Faisal II. He joined the Baath Party, a radical nationalist movement in 1957 and a year later a non-Baathist group of army officers succeeded in overthrowing the King. The Baath Party couldn't have that, so in 1959, Saddam and a group of Baathist supporters tried to kill General Qassim, earning Saddam a bullet in the leg and the need to "get gone from Iraq" or be imprisoned. He fled to Syria and then Egypt. But he was noticed by those above him and began his rise to power from there, even though in exile. He finished high school at age 24, but not until after he had been arrested several times for violent acts against other students, usually because of political differences. He didn't tolerate disagreement with his positions, even then.

In 1963, a group of Baathist army officers tortured and murdered General Qassim on national television. They also mutilated many of Qassim's devotees and showed close-up views of their bodies on the nightly news for several nights. Saddam came rushing back to be involved. He became an interrogator and torturer at the infamous "Palace of the End," in the basement of the former palace of King Faisal. He rose quickly through the ranks because of his expertise as a torturer.

When the Baathist Party split in 1963, Saddam, who had supported the "winner," was appointed to be a member of the Baath Regional Command, although he was later jailed by some "rightist" army officers who opposed the Baathist takeover. But he had powerful friends, among them his older cousin General Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, who saw to it that Saddam became deputy Secretary-General of the Baathists in 1996. In that same year, Saddam escaped from prison and set up a Baathist internal party system known as Jihaz Haneen, which was to serve as the continuation of his political and real rise to power. In 1968, his mentor, General Bakr, and the Baathists seized the government. Saddam was made Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, in charge of internal security at age 31. What a mistake for Bakr to make. Putting Saddam in as "number two" guaranteed his life would last only as long as it took for Saddam to consolidate his power.

In this job, Saddam built an enormous security apparatus, with spies and informers everywhere in the "circles of power." He also began, during this time, to steal the wealth and position he so relished as a poor sheep-herder in the desert of al-Auja. His family, now firmly entrenched in the power structure, began to control the country's oil and other industrial enterprises. With the help of his spy network and several assassins, he took control of many of the nation's leading businesses.

In 1978, Iraq was working to ostracize Egypt for its diplomatic initiative in resolving Israel/Arab questions. President Bakr was about to appoint President Hafaz al-Assad to a position of greater power than that held by Saddam. He couldn't have this, so he began a drive to get Bakr to resign. It was successful, and on July 16, 1979, Bakr resigned. It was officially because of "health reasons," but was in reality a result of Saddam's efforts to undermine his old mentor. Saddam then began to remove people who could be an impediment to his further consolidation of power. Twenty plus people, including a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Command, the head of the labor unions and the leading Shiite member of the Command were systematically and personally murdered by Hussein and his top party officials. Within a few days, as many as 450 other military officers, deputy prime ministers, and other "non-party faithful" were rounded up and murdered, insuring Hussein's consolidation of power.

Then he invaded Iran, a country considered a threat to his continued "leadership," and at the same time used poison gas on the Kurds for participating with the Iranians in an attempted overthrow attempt. That war was to continue for eight years of brutality and murder on both sides, and when Saddam figured out that he couldn't win, sued for peace. Millions had been tortured, raped, and killed, for nothing.

Then he invaded Kuwait, calling it "the 19th province of Iraq." It was almost to destroy him, as the United Nations, in the person of the United States, went in and stopped him. He promised "a mother of a battle" that he would win. It was. His troops battled valiantly to find people to whom to surrender. The war destroyed his infrastructure and at its end, he was huddled in an underground bunker with his country smoldering in ruins around him. But other forces conspired to get then President Bush to stop short of going in and destroying Saddam himself. Big mistake. Saddam alive is Saddam a threat.

President Bush said in 1990, "We're dealing with Hitler revisited." Nobody thought Hitler was much of a threat to the world when he did many of the same things in Germany and the other countries he invaded. But it is now known that if we hadn't intervened then, we might have all been required by now to learn German. The same things are being said about Saddam that were then said about Hitler. "He's just an upstart dictator of a tiny country that couldn't begin to threaten us. He couldn't even beat Iran, for heaven's sake." But he is on the threshold of being able to use nuclear weapons, and that's a real threat, no matter how small he is, with his bellicose nature.

He is well known for his revenge against anybody who opposes him, and with his enormous ego telling him he can even beat the United States, who knows what he will do, or be able to do. He is a megalomaniac who thinks it's just a "matter of time" before he destroys the United States. He is already financing the Palestinian terrorists in Israel. Who knows whether or not he is financing al Qaida? Many people think he is, and there is considerable evidence that they're right. If so, he has already had one stupendous victory. Are we going to just wait until he has another?

This is a man who conned two of his family members who had defected to the West into coming back, saying "all is forgiven," and then at a "family dinner" murdered them himself, not caring what the world thought. This is not a "leader," this is a thug who murdered his way to the top and murders his way to a continuance of his power. A man who thinks he can win over the United States. This is a man who must be stopped, before he succeeds, by "hook or crook."

[danee]

Interesting piece Tony,..
but in my mind appears to be a pro US propoganda piece...
Interestingly he has completely left out all details of the history of the US and Sadam - particularly during the Iraq/Iran War.

When the war first broke out, the Soviet Union turned back its arms ships en route to Iraq, and for the next year and a half, while Iraq was on the offensive, Moscow did not provide weapons to Baghdad.<30> In March 1981, the Iraqi Communist Party, repressed by Saddam Hussein, beamed broadcasts from the Soviet Union calling for an end to the war and the withdrawal of Iraqi troops.<31> That same month U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he saw the possibility of improved ties with Baghdad and approvingly noted that Iraq was concerned by "the behavior of Soviet imperialism in the Middle Eastern area." The U.S. then approved the sale to Iraq of five Boeing jetliners, and sent a deputy assistant secretary of state to Baghdad for talks.<32> The U.S. removed Iraq from its notoriously selective list of nations supporting international terrorism<33> (despite the fact that terrorist Abu Nidal was based in the country)<34> and Washington extended a $400 million credit guarantee for U.S. exports to Iraq.<35> In November 1984, the U.S. and Iraq restored diplomatic relations, which had been ruptured in 1967.

- - Bibliography Extract - -
30. John W. Amos II, "The Iraq-Iran War: Conflict, Linkage, and Spillover in the Middle East," in _Gulf Security into the 1980s: Perceptual and Strategic Dimensions_, ed. Robert G. Darius, John W. Amos II, Ralph H. Magnus, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1984, p. 65.

31. Cordesman, _The Gulf..._, p. 717; Robert O. Freedman, "Soviet Policy Toward the Persian Gulf from the Outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War to the Death of Konstantin Chernenko," in _U.S. Strategic Interests in the Gulf Region_, ed. Wm. J. Olson, Boulder: Westview, 1987, p. 55.

32. Freedman, "Soviet Policy...," p. 55.

33. Joe Stork and Martha Wenger, "U.S. Ready to Intervene in the Gulf War," _MERIP Reports_, nos. 125/126, July-Sept. 1984, p. 45.

34. Freedman, "Soviet Policy...," p. 63; _New York Times_, 10 Nov. 1982, p. 5.

35. Stork & Wenger, "U.S. Ready to Intervene...," p. 45.

36. _War in the Persian Gulf: The U.S. Takes Sides_, staff report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, Nov. 1987, Committee Print S. Prt. 100-60, pp. 21-22. Hereafter cited as S. Prt. 100-60.

Essay Source:THE UNITED STATES AND THE IRAN-IRAQ WAR

[Someone Stupid]

Danee, you beat me to it.

We supported him for a LONG time, and we knew and we encouraged his use of these weapons by giving him bio weapons and the means to deliver them. We feared Iran winning - that doesn't give us the right to do what we did - but we are part of the cause of this problem. The nuclear effort is mostly french, the chemical and biological is the US all the way.