Word: baath
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...taking these threats seriously and are mobilizing millions of Iraqis in preparation," said Monday's front-page editorial in the Baath paper Al-Thawra. Saddam won't have seen "Wag the Dog" yet, but he already knows what a welcome distraction bombing raids on his country provide for the White House...
...military failings, in turn, point to a major flaw in Saddam's rule. In his 27 years in power, the dictator has steadily narrowed his own base of support. He long ago weakened the Baath Party socialists who overthrew the old monarchy, and has concentrated power in his own extended family. Along the way, he has lost, killed or driven away most of his supporters who have shown any brains or ability. And now Saddam's family itself is torn by betrayals and blood feuds. Many of its members have also been sacked, exiled or executed. The latest example...
...event, the amputations are reportedly being ordered by members of the ruling Baath Party rather than by religious courts, as called for in the Koran. Max Van Der Stoel, a Dutch human-rights monitor for the U.N. in Iraq, who has documented the abuses, says Hussein's real intent is to stifle popular opposition...
Scenes that are cleverly blocked out should work but don't. Here's the Declaration, John Adams' signature blurry from Saddam's spit, nailed to the wall at Baath headquarters in Baghdad. We see the hero, a lecturer in constitutional law from Yale, creeping in to switch the real document for a copy. Then the heroine, a beautiful Israeli spy who doesn't realize the switch has already been made, puts the original back in place and grabs the copy. Suddenly . . . but there's no tension, no believability, no sense that Baghdad's streets sound or feel or smell different...
These are not the people that Saddam Hussein counts on. He has drawn around himself a tight circle of supporters, loyal members of his al-Tikriti clan, whose interlocking relationships ensure his control of the security services, the military and the Baath party. The army is run by a cousin who launched poison-gas attacks against the Kurds in 1988 and destroyed Shi'ite holy sites in the south after the war. Internal security is entrusted to two half- brothers, and Saddam's younger son, Qusai, 26, was recently put in charge of the 10,000-man presidential guard. Another...