September 4, 2002. Copyright, 2002, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Profile: Saddam Hussein
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, September 4, Graphic News:  No leader provokes such contradictory reactions as Saddam Hussein. As the United States intensifies its demonisation of the Iraqi president to drum up support for a war, SaddamÕs Arab neighbours are lining up to insist that his preservation is essential to regional stability.

As revered as he is by the Arab masses, Saddam is reviled by western hawks as the ÒButcher of BaghdadÓ, an evil madman who has admitted his readiness to torture and kill opponents in pursuit of his political, military and, perhaps, expansionist goals. But could a mere madman have lasted so long, surviving assassination attempts, coup plots, UN sanctions and air wars with Britain and the U.S. since the 1991 Gulf war?

Born to a poor widow near Tikrit, north of Baghdad, in 1937, SaddamÕs rise through the ranks of the BaÕath Party to become president in 1979, and his subsequent rule, have been characterised by strategic thinking and steely calm. He has infuriated the West by sometimes appearing to be ahead of their game, as in 1996 when he pre-empted a CIA coup plot by executing hundreds of Iraqi military officers who had signalled willingness to take part.

Saddam has at his disposal the worldÕs most perfect security apparatus, employing more than 200,000 staff. Officers of his Revolutionary Guards are rotated and only three people know of his movements. Suspicion is a hallmark of his regime in which power is shared between close family, notably his sons Uday and Ousay, and an extended clan. So incestuous is his regime, that some in the West pin hopes of his demise on a family feud.

This tribal style of rule is matched by his preferred style of leadership. Less politician than ÒwarriorÓ, Saddam casts himself as a knight leading the Arab masses into war against the infidel. In Baghdad he is omnipresent, staring down benevolently from city walls in a variety of guises: military wear, ethnic dress or business suits. Only the tyrant is missing.

The only people who do not venture an opinion of Saddam are Iraqis living under his rule, who have paid the highest price for his survival. Thousands have died of malnutrition under UN sanctions that are unlikely to lifted unless Saddam complies with demands to readmit weapons inspectors. But so far the immense suffering of his people and the reduction of Iraq to its pre-industrial state have not caused a crack in his resolve. But then SaddamÕs role model is Josef Stalin, another despot who would stop at nothing to remain in power.

Ruthless? Certainly. Saddam has unleashed chemical weapons on rebellious Kurds in the north and shown himself to be a willing, even hands-on executioner. But discussions now focus on whether or not he is infallible. In his career he is judged to have made two colossal errors of judgment: the costly eight-year war with Iran and the invasion of Kuwait which bankrupted the country and turned him into an international pariah.

Now the tide is turning Ð if not in SaddamÕs favour at least away from a pre-emptive strike against Iraq. Oil-rich Gulf Arab states have urged the U.S. to scale back its warlike rhetoric, saying only diplomacy can end WashingtonÕs standoff. Nine out of ten Europeans oppose an attack without UN approval, and there is growing unease in Washington over who should be empowered to launch such a pre-emptive war: the President or Congress?

Amid the chorus Saddam remains silent. There is no sign of the triumphalist rhetoric that followed defeat in the Gulf war, a conflict he famously described as the ÒMother-of-All-BattlesÓ. In doing so, the Iraqi leader has allowed support, if not for him then for his people, to grow. This may be his smartest move yet. With all its talk of Saddam as the modern Hitler, the U.S. has made the rest of the world queasy and cast itself as the aggressor.
/ENDS