Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937, in Tikrit, an Iraqi town. He had an unhappy childhood, which is said to be the cause of his megalomaniac psyche, which came to fore in his later life. Despite hardships plaguing his personal life he didn’t give up academics. While still in his teens, Saddam jumped into the turbulent waters of Iraqi politics. He became a formal member of the Baath Party in 1956. Saddam participated in an assassination attempt of Abdul Karim Qasim, the Prime Minister of Iraq. Though the P.M survived but Saddam got shot in his leg and could barely manage to escape to Syria and then onto Egypt.
While in exile, the Iraqi authorities condemned him to death. Unfazed, he enrolled himself in the Cairo University and started studying Law. The struggle carried on by his countrymen against the ruling regime, again made him gravitate into the centre of movement for liberation of Iraq. He returned and led the protest from the forefront and was arrested on charges of perfidy and sent to prison. During his incarceration, he not only completed his Law but also rose from ranks to become the Deputy General Secretary of the Baath Party. In 1967 Saddam escaped from prison to lead the revolutionaries of Baath Party from the front. On July 17, 1968 while leading an armed militia, he stormed into the presidential palace and overthrew the regime. Saddam first tasted power at this juncture, when he was appointed the Vice- Chairman of Revolutionary Command Council. Thence began a series of political machinations carried out by his astute mind, to foment his rise in the military and Baath Party hierarchy which culminated in his appointment as the Chairman Revolutionary Command Council and President of the Republic of Iraq on July16, 1976. Saddam then ruled Iraq till 2003.
Saddam was known for his ruthless ways and lavish lifestyle. Though he brought about significant reforms in Iraq’s socio-cultural, economic and political scenario but he is said to have silenced many a dissenting voice with the muzzle of the gun. It is believed that he carried out large-scale executions of his political foes, of which the mass graves, located by the coalition forces stand testimony. Saddam is accused of carrying out pogroms of thousands of Kurd rebels, with the help of chemical bombings. But his ambitions were not to be satisfied by his unbridled reign of terror in Iraq alone.
During the decade of eighties, he plunged his country into a bloody war with Iran – a conflict of the proportions, the region had not seen in its modern past. He built a war machine boasting of military equipment and gadgetry, which could make even the most advanced nations envious. A mere population of 25 million was forced to bear the expenses of an army of well-trained 450000 personnel. He also toyed with the idea of developing nuclear weaponry and sought help from Soviet Union, China, North Korea and India. In the process hefty revenues from petroleum products in this oil rich state, were siphoned off to maintain one of the most extravagant armies of the world.
Slowly his subjects drifted towards pecuniary, as there was stalemate in industrial and commercial growth. A society, which had seen a new dawn with advent of Saddam, was reverted back to egalitarian means of livelihood and primitive lifestyle, while the sister countries of Mid-east flourished in the oil generated wealth. Hardly had he attained peace with Iran that Saddam chose to invade Kuwait in 1990,which he claimed was a district of Iraq, before being severed from the mainland, by the evil British imperialists. This expedition was to be his nemesis. The wily Saddam made a grave miscalculation and earned the ire of US and other NATO countries as they had become increasingly fond of these tiny oil rich states and their ruling royalties.
With the Russian (CFSR) states in a state of disarray and impotent to check the western belligerence, the United States launched the biggest ever offensive of Allied forces against Iraq, under the UN command. Iraq was bombed with supersonic modern missile system technologies hitherto unused anywhere else. In a matter of days Kuwait was vacated and Saddam was on his knees. He invited severe UN sanctions. Iraqi economy due to heavy pounding lay shattered and Iraqi people were in tatters. Despite all the grinding they received Iraqis stood by their defiant leader through out the decade of nineties. Whether it was out of love or fear of Saddam, perhaps no one will be ever able to decide. US didn’t allow any developmental work to start in the devastated country under the pretext of UN sanctions. Barter of oil for food and medicines for famished and sick Iraqi people, was the only trade allowed. Despite all this, Saddam continued with his tirades against the so-called evil designs of the West and Israel.
During this period George Jr, the son of his bitterest foe, George Bush assumed office in White House. A war of attrition began between the two leaders and the terrorist attack on the WTC exacerbated matters. Unable to catch the mastermind of this attack- the fundamentalist Osama bin Laden, in a botched up operation in Afghanistan, George Bush wanted to provide some kind of consolation to the American people, amidst their growing disenchantment with his policies. In spite of the reports of the UN inspectors pointing to the contrary, Bush accused Saddam of possessing weapons of mass destruction and of being a potent threat to the American people. In a hastily cobbled coalition, US forces attacked Iraq in March 2003 and within days the world saw the Fall of Baghdad. The worldwide media carried miles of footage, contrasting the impoverished Iraqi people with lavish lifestyle of its former dictator, who by now had fled. Palace after palace belonging to Saddam, his immediate family members and henchmen were flashed on the TV Screens.
But US forces could proclaim victory only on the Dec13, 2003 when they got hold of their second most wanted fugitive- Saddam Hussein. In a conflict of ideas, an increasing number of leaders including Tony Blair have voiced their opinion against giving him a death sentence. The future, however for him remains uncertain.
