Word: saddams
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...what, in the end, did Saddam bequeath to his people? Some of Iraq's new demons were spawned by him. Remnants of his regime dominate the Sunni insurgency and many jihadist groups. Some of the Shi'ite anger that fuels the current sectarian war can be traced to the mass murder of Shi'ites that the dictator ordered in the 1990s. Saddam's malevolence indirectly begat al-Sadr, who was destined to a quiet life in the seminary of Najaf until Saddam in 1999 ordered the murder of his father and two older brothers, thrusting Muqtada into the limelight...
...Saddam's more enduring legacies are also more mundane. By killing off anybody who might pose a threat to him, he prevented the natural emergence of new generations of leaders, so that the country is now run by political neophytes without experience or the skill to rule. The corruption that characterized every government department under his regime continues to this day. The reconstituted police force practices the same forms of torture instituted under Saddam. An Iraqi politician compared the dictator's legacy to what the Romans did after they conquered Carthage: "He put salt in our fields, and it will...
...prior to his hanging, Saddam had become something of an afterthought. The nightmare of his tyranny has been replaced by the new plagues of terrorism and sectarian carnage. Many Iraqis--not all of them Sunni--hark nostalgically back to the dictatorship, pointing out that for all the terrors Saddam visited upon his people, at least there were no suicide bombers and death squads roaming the streets. But once his trial began, even his most ardent followers conceded he would never return to power. The Sunni Baathist insurgents have long since stopped fighting for him. Many have recast themselves...
...question is whether the sectarian tumult surrounding his execution will lend Saddam a new stature, allowing his loyalists to portray him not as a convicted killer but as a victim, mercilessly lynched by a vengeful, U.S.-backed Shi'ite government. Indeed, some have been planning to do so all along. One afternoon last October, I watched the televised Saddam trial in the company of Abu Hamza, a former senior officer in the Republican Guard. Watching his former boss sitting sullenly in the dock, Abu Hamza shook his head. Even a loyal follower could see no dignity there. Then...
...generally accepted that the hanging of Saddam Hussein was a disaster. But at least it wasn't our fault. "Would we have done things differently? Yes, we would have," said U.S. military spokesman Gen. William B. Caldwell in Baghdad. "But that's not our decision. That's an Iraqi government decision." At the White House, the President's men have been all too eager to lie low and let someone else take the fall for the latest mess. "The President is focused on the way forward," the deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanze told reporters. "So these issues...