Word: saladin
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...Saddam himself knew all about the power of symbols. For decades his propagandists compared him to Saladin, the great Muslim general of the 1100s. Saladin, like Saddam, was born in Tikrit (though Saladin was a Kurd), and at the Battle of Hattin in Galilee in 1187, he won the bloodiest and most comprehensive victory that Muslim armies ever achieved against Christian Crusaders. The murals in Baghdad of Saddam on a white horse, with a drawn sword - laughably kitsch to Western tastes - were a deliberate attempt to link him to Saladin?s blessed memory...
...when a roadside bomb blew up in front of him. The convoy stopped and within seconds was taking light arms fire from three directions. "We did what we are supposed to: we all faced out, said, 'This is my wedge of the arc,' and started shooting," says Specialist Brian Saladin, 27, who was in the vehicle in front of Bear's. "You go on automatic pilot," says Bear. "I didn't have time to think about my wife, my kids, my cat, my dog. It's not until afterward when you say, 'Wow, we were getting shot at and blown...
...Saddam is Iraq. He has been a ruler, says Coughlin, who "has always had one eye on history." He has longed for his name to go down in Arab history alongside those of the culture's great heroes, like Nebuchadnezzar, who drove the Jews into Babylonian captivity, and Saladin, who retook Jerusalem from the Christian Crusaders. He wanted to fulfill the modern-day promise of Egypt's great nationalist Gamal Abdul Nasser, restoring Arab unity and the greater Arab nation to its rightful place in the world. In recent years the standard-bearer of secular Baathism even turned to prayer...
...many Arabs a decade ago would practically swoon as they described their adoration of the man who defied America during the gulf crisis. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was the valorous knight, defender of the Arab cause. Arab nationalists debated whether he bore a closer resemblance to Bismarck or to Saladin. In widespread pro-Iraq protests, the refrain in the streets was "With our blood, our souls, we will sacrifice for Saddam!" Some Arabs even swore they saw the face of Saddam on the surface of the moon...
Your excellent essays on links between mental and physical health brought to mind Maimonides, court physician to Sultan Saladin in the 12th century. Comparing Maimonides' approach with the more traditional one of the Greek physician Galen, a grateful patient wrote, "Galen's art heals only the body, but Maimonides' the body and soul." HENRY WINTERS Columbia...