Word: saladin
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Saddam is another story. A man who likens himself to Nebuchadnezzar and Saladin and who first killed someone as a teenager and has ruthlessly pursued power ever since probably won't simply quit now, say intelligence analysts. The analysts are virtually unanimous in their assessment that Saddam will not go standing up. For one thing, it's his power that has kept him alive. Saddam sleeps in a different bed every night, has body doubles and food tasters, all for good reason. Iraqi diplomats say Saddam is convinced that Bush wants him dead, and so any exile scenario would have...
...been out of bounds for journalists for months, so this is a rare treat. Here, finally, is a chance to explore the social and cultural setting that produced not only Saddam, but also one of the Arab world?s greatest heroes, Salahuddin - or, as the Crusaders knew him, Saladin. Here?s a chance to chat with members of Saddam?s own tribe, and to glean from them some clues as to how his mind works...
...Tikritis is inside the stadium, where the few hundred people who are not marching have gathered to cheer. Since these can only be hurried conversations in the minutes before the marching starts, I decide to focus on one broad question: What is it about Tikrit that produces strongmen like Saladin and Saddam...
Saddam has always been obsessed with building. The Pharaonic size of his enterprises--vast palaces, gigantic mosques, even the idea of an atom bomb--reflect his self-image as history's hero. He never forgets he was born in Tikrit, home nine centuries ago to the great Saladin, the Islamic victor in the Crusades. Saddam's latest Baghdad palace features columns topped with huge replicas of his own head bearing Saladin's helmet. He shaped the minarets on the grand new Mother of All Battles mosque to resemble the Scud missiles he fired at Israel during the Gulf War. These...
...death or capture long enough to become a myth. The kind of iconic figure, that's to say, whom immense numbers of ordinary Arabs and Muslims, entirely aside from actual fellow terrorists and extremists, will come to identify with as a source of pride and of inspiration, a modern Saladin, a Bonnie Prince Charlie escaping his overwhelming enemy because of his skill, because of the loyalty of his supporters and, as will certainly become part of bin Laden's legend, because Allah willed...