Hussein was symbol of autocracy, cruelty in Iraq

Article

Oh no ! He's gone ! How will we ever cope ? Who will we have to laugh at and ridicule ? Oh right , we still have George Bush ... never mind !


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq who spent his last years in captivity after his ruthless Baathist regime was toppled from power by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003, has been executed -- hanged for crimes during a brutal crackdown during his reign.

DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD ! (oops..wrong tune)

Having moved to Baghdad as a teenager, Hussein joined the Arab Baath Socialist Party while a secondary school student. In 1958 he spent six months in prison for his political activities.

Loser ! Looooooser ! In jail aready are we ?


The next year Hussein and several others attempted to assassinate Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, who came to power in 1958 in a military coup. Hussein was shot in the leg during the botched attempt, but he escaped and fled to Iraq. He was sentenced to death in absentia February 25, 1960, for his role in the plot.

Is this a list of his acheivements or his failures ?


After studying in Egypt, Hussein returned to Iraq in February 1963 following the Ramadan Revolution, in which Baath Party members overthrew Kassem. The following months of political turmoil culminated in another coup, and Hussein was arrested again on October 14, 1964.

He was elected deputy secretary-general of the Baath Party while in prison.


Another round in jail ! Another assassination attempt ! A twice failed assassin now elected leader of the Baath...what a joke.


According to the prewar Iraqi News Agency's resume of Hussein, he escaped from jail in 1967. In July 1968 he played a leading role in a coup that led to the ascension of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, a fellow Baath member and Hussein's cousin, as Iraq's new ruler.


What does "played a leading role" mean ? For someone who's your leader who wants his claim to fame even if he did nothing ... loser ! You stole someone elses thunder , didn't you ?


"Saddam accumulated power over a period of 10 to 12 years," said Mark Bowden, a best-selling author who profiled Hussein's daily life in a May 2002 Atlantic Monthly article. "When you have evidenced considerable charm [and] an ability to get things done, even very idealistic and ambitious people begin to side with you."


There we go. The failed assassin turns out to be great at the talk talk thing , lousy at the assassin - assassin thing. heh heh heh


With a camera recording the event, Hussein told a room full of top officials that he had uncovered a conspiracy to overthrow the government. One by one he named the alleged traitors. Sixty-eight men were taken away, and 21 were executed.

"He essentially betrayed many of those people who had relied on him," Bowden said.


And what a charming talker he turned out to be ! My but he was skilled at it !


In 1980 Hussein entered a war with Iran that would last eight years and, according to some estimates, cost more than a million lives, before ending in a stalemate.


loser ! Again !


Two years later he ordered troops and tanks to invade Kuwait, Iraq's oil-rich neighbor to the south. A U.N.-backed, U.S.-led coalition routed Iraq's forces and forced them out of Kuwait in early 1991.


And again !


Hussein and his associates tried to lobby Middle Eastern nations to end the U.N.-imposed sanctions and support his policies, in particular his fervent opposition to the United States and Israel.


After you just finished stupidly invading one of those neibours ? Even YOUR legendary talk talk was not enough for the job, it seemed.


But under mounting pressure after Bush's speech, Iraq re-admitted U.N. weapons inspectors, who returned to Iraq in November 2002 with the prospect of war or peace hanging in the balance.

Inspectors found illegal Samoud missiles and destroyed them in February 2003.

The inspectors departed again in March 2003 after the United States advised the United Nations to remove its weapons inspectors from Iraq ahead of an expected U.S.-led attack.


The final loss.

Here is a man who tried assassination , twice it seemed, didn't work out for him. Then the old talk talk lie lie business, and discovered how gullable people can be. Odd...everytime he talked, he got away with it mostly . Every time he acted , he lost.

You'd think he'd stop acting. Stop invading his neibours stop rattleing his sabre. Being a dictator is a sweet set up , you simply point and your guards pluck any young lady you like off the street for you to enjoy , and if anyone complains you shoot them. It's a great set up , but I guess it wasn't enough , always have to push for more.


Eventually, the Bush administration conceded that there were no weapons of mass destruction, the primary reason it had cited for the invasion. It has since said that it launched the invasion to get rid of Hussein and spread democracy.

Even though some in the administration advanced the idea that there may have been a working relationship between the Hussein regime and al Qaeda, that theory was firmly refuted by the 9/11 commission report.


This is a different issue.

First off , Al Qaeda means "The list" , and it's just a list of names of people who passed through some safe houses Osama Bin Laden was running , in case a relative called and wanted to know if their brother had made it safely , etc etc. It wasn't any kind of organization per say , and it had no command structure, it was just people passing through those houses.

I suppose, philosophically , you could say Saddam Hussain was on the list in spirit at least because all those people were terrorists on their way to terrorist training camps (thus the sudden importance of such a list) and he supported that and even donated money , payed 25 000$ for every succesful suicide bomber that killed at least one jew , etc etc ... but no , he did not pass through the houses.

Second there were minimal weapons of mass destruction. That is to say , I recall articles where a nuclear reactor had simply been abandonned, and the americans had to actually buy back some barrels that used to hold radioactives, because they were poisoning the people now using them to hold rain water. The radioactive powerder it held had been simply dumed on the ground and the barrels stolen. (smart move, guys...)
Take some of that powder , stick it in a bomb , fire it off at Isreal like they do a few times a day now for the last couple of years. It won't go nuclear , thus technically it's not a weapon of mass destruction, but spraying radioactive dust over a civilian population is definately going to terrorize someone , I guarentee you that much. Even if there are no "mass deaths" to qualify as mass destruction.
Those crazy buggers are lucky they live in a desert or they would have bio-weaponed each other to death long ago.

Anyways, the evil witch of our time is dead, and I think he derserved it , and I think Bush was right to invade.

Were there weapons of mass destruction ? Technically no. Was he part of Al Quaeda ? Technically No. But the word Technically is occuring way too many times in those answers.

Gone, but not forgotten. Just like Hitler !