TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/081390/08130010.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 8.2 KB | 174 lines

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                                                          WORLD, Page 23

COVER STORIES

Master of His Universe


Iraq's dictator seems capable of doing anything to get his way

By OTTO FRIEDRICH -- Reported by Dan Goodgame/Washington and
William Mader/London


    "Nebuchadnezzar was driven from men, and did eat grass as
oxen..."

    -- The Book of Daniel 4: 33


    What kind of a man would cold-bloodedly gobble up a
neighboring country? What kind of a man would try to
assassinate a Prime Minister? What kind of a man gasses
undefended villages or executes his closest colleagues? What
kind of a man, in short, is Iraq's President-for-Life Saddam
Hussein?

    The heir, it would seem, of the fierce and bloodthirsty
Mesopotamian kings who once ruled the civilized world. Many of
those ancient potentates met terrible ends -- when they made
the mistake of relaxing their grip for an instant. Saddam is
determined not to repeat their fate.

    When Israeli intelligence agents gave an anonymous sample
of Saddam's handwriting to a leading graphologist recently, the
analyst said the writer suffered from severe megalomania with
symptoms of paranoia. Graphology is even less of a science than
long-distance psychiatry, but there is other evidence besides
the loops and whorls of script. Saddam had himself photographed
not long ago in a replica of the war chariot of Nebuchadnezzar,
the Babylonian king whom Saddam apparently reveres as his hero.
Despite a bout of insanity, which is recounted in The Book of
Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar made his name in history by destroying
Jerusalem in 587 B.C. and driving its inhabitants into 70 years
of captivity. It is fair warning.

    Like those forebears, Saddam is by no means crazy. Rather,
he is a man willing to do almost anything to get what he wants
-- and he wants to dominate the Middle East much as
Nebuchadnezzar once did. "He is an extremely shrewd,
cold-blooded, clever thug," says a senior British diplomat who
has dealt with him. "Human life means nothing to him." He plays
the complex game of Middle East politics by the bareknuckle
rules of the region. Says another diplomat: "He does what he
thinks is expedient. He is not driven by ideology or whim. He
coldly calculates every move. He is simply a brutal and very
clever pragmatist." Adds TIME correspondent Dan Goodgame: "On
meeting him, a visitor is first struck by his eyes, crackling
with alertness and at the same time cold and remorseless as
snake eyes on the sides of dice. They are the eyes of a
killer."

    The origins of Saddam's killer instinct go back to his roots
in Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad. Born in 1937 the son of
peasants, he was orphaned at the age of nine months and raised
by an uncle, an army officer named Khairallah Talfah, who hated
Britain's domination of Iraq's puppet monarchy. At his knee,
the boy learned the ways of intrigue and sneak attack, until
Talfah joined in an abortive anti-British coup in 1941 and was
imprisoned. Saddam did not attend school until the age of nine
and later, when he applied for admission to the elite Baghdad
Military Academy, he was rejected for poor grades. It was a
devastating blow, instilling, say Israeli analysts, an obsession
with the use of military force. Though Saddam now likes to
parade around in self-designed military uniforms, it was only
after he came to power that he could make himself a full
general.

    The nearest he ever got to combat was assassination. As a
student, he had joined the Baath Party, an underground
anti-Western, pan-Arab socialist movement. The party put him
on a team assigned to murder Iraq's military ruler, Abdul Karim
Kassem. Saddam and his confederates sprayed Kassem's station
wagon with machine-gun fire as it sped through downtown
Baghdad, but they missed their target. Although bodyguards
killed several of the assailants, Saddam escaped with a bullet
in his left leg. In the glorified words of his own hagiography
-- the truth is less dramatic -- he carved out the bullet
himself with a razor dipped in iodine, then disguised himself
as a Bedouin tribesman, swam across the Tigris River, stole a
donkey and fled across the desert to Syria. He was captured and
jailed, but supposedly word of his adventures reached Egypt's
President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was then a charismatic
exponent of pan-Arabism. Nasser got Saddam transferred to Cairo,
and became another hero.

    At 25, Saddam began studying law, but his heart was in other
things. According to one anecdote, Saddam was exasperated when
his Cairo classmates sat around in cafes and debated the fine
points of local politics. "Why argue?" Saddam shouted. "Why
don't you just take out a gun and shoot him?"

    Saddam returned to Baghdad in 1963 and started organizing
a militia for the Baath Party, which finally succeeded in
grabbing power permanently in 1968. Under the nominal
leadership of General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, the man who held
the real control was his relative Saddam Hussein. Keeping
things in the family, Saddam married another relative, Sajida
Talfah, the daughter of the officer who had raised him.

    Al-Bakr retired in 1979, and that left Saddam completely in
charge. He celebrated by ordering the execution of 21 Cabinet
members, including one of his closest comrades, on dubious
charges of treason. "He who is closest to me is farthest from
me when he does wrong," said Saddam.

    According to a British diplomat, on other occasions Saddam
took a band of Cabinet ministers and aides down to Baghdad's
central prison to serve as the firing squad for a number of
political prisoners. "It was to ensure loyalty through common
guilt," says the British official. It also reminds his
colleagues what their own destiny might be. Amnesty
International has estimated the number of executions in Iraq
at hundreds a year, and the secret police are everywhere.
Torture is commonplace. It is a crime to own a typewriter
without police permission. It is death to speak against the
"Father-Leader." Says a Western official: "Everyone knows that
no one is safe."

    Yet in 1980 Saddam nearly brought his regime to ruin when
he attacked Iran. He had once given refuge to the Ayatullah
Khomeini, then, under pressure from the Shah, expelled him. Not
only did Saddam want disputed territory, but he was also
provoked when Khomeini began calling for the overthrow of
Saddam's "blasphemous" regime. He is a Sunni Muslim, though
most Iraqis belong to the rival Shi`ite branch, as did Khomeini.
Saddam responded by invading, confident that his powerful,
Soviet-equipped army could easily smash the Ayatullah's ragtag
militia, but the Iranians fought back. When the going got
especially rough, Saddam turned to poison gas, a horror weapon
outlawed after World War I.

    Not so much popular as feared at home, he is equally
ruthless in preserving his power. He is omnipresent, his face,
sometimes several feet high, adorning every city block. His
picture hangs in every office, every shop, even most private
homes, lest the dreaded secret police pay a call. Those who
don't conform pay. A senior general once warned him, according
to an Iraqi informant, that an attack he had ordered would lead
to very high casualties. Saddam invited the general into the
next room to discuss the matter. After the door closed behind
them, a shot rang out. Saddam returned alone, stuffing his
pistol into his holster.

    While fighting the Iranians, Saddam was also waging war
against the rebellious Kurds, who make up about 19% of Iraq's
population. There too he relied on poison gas, not against
invading soldiers but against civilians, women and children.
It took eight years for the gulf war to end in a stalemate,
with a loss of an estimated 75,000 to 150,000 Iraqi lives and
the country's economy in ruins. To rebuild from the wreckage,
Saddam needed more oil revenues, and when Kuwait interfered
with his plans, he reached -- as ever -- for his pistol.

    What distinguishes Saddam from the rulers of other lands is
that he is not content merely to "be" President. He has a
vision -- some would say a delusion -- of grandeur for himself
and for Iraq, but the only ways he knows to pursue the dream
are to kill and bully and take.