Word: baath
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...Fedayeen Saddam. These estimated 20,000 young "men of sacrifice," commanded by the ruler's notorious older son Uday, are the regime's most politically reliable force, known for their readiness to carry out its dirty work. Beginning in 1995, Uday recruited local toughs from Sunni regions devoted to Baath rule to form a family security force under his personal control. Originally in charge of smuggling, the Fedayeen were schooled to become a ruthless instrument for quelling dissent. Skilled in torture and assassination and willing to die for Saddam, the Fedayeen are perfectly suited to their dual mission behind enemy...
...popular militias, an assortment of other irregulars has been dragged into the fray. Some members of the al-Quds, or Jerusalem, Army, who show off at parades and propaganda events but lack fighting credentials, have been given rifles and mustered into action. And in many cities and towns, local Baath Party faithful, who have everything to lose if the regime collapses, have joined the fight...
...regime crumbles under the relentless onslaught of the coalition, few Baath Party leaders have as much reason to mourn as young Qusay does. Over the past decade, the short, pudgy and mustachioed Qusay quietly consolidated his authority in Iraq, all the while keeping his personal life largely out of the spotlight. He went to law school, married the daughter of a war hero and produced two children. He reputedly likes equestrian sports and keeps his peccadilloes discreet...
Naked force and utter ruthlessness were Saddam's preferred methods for staying atop his country's turbulent politics. From the day Saddam at age 20 launched his career as a gunman for the nationalist Baath Party, he knew what it meant to be in an enemy's cross hairs. When Iraq's military toppled the monarchy in 1958, mobs dragged the mutilated bodies of the regent and Prime Minister through Baghdad's streets and hanged them from city gates. Saddam himself tried--but failed--to assassinate the leader of the coup, Abdul Karim Qaseem. And when Baath plotters did murder...
Those experiences taught Saddam that politics was a no-holds-barred struggle for survival amid a ceaseless threat of plots, feuding and betrayal. He rose swiftly in the Baath Party by specializing in the dirty work of security and soon turned himself into a shaqawah, or man to be feared. "He killed lots of people to get to the top," says Con Coughlin, author of a recent Saddam biography, all the while knowing that "they could get to the top by killing him." According to another biographer, London professor Efraim Karsh, Saddam once told a visitor he could see betrayal...