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Saddam Hussein

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needed.Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti
=D8=B5=D8=AF=D8=A7=D9=85 =D8=AD=D8=B3=D9=8A=D9=86 =D8=B9=D8=A8=D8=AF =D8=

Saddam Hussein during his first appearance before the Iraqi Special
Tribunal


-------------------------------------------------------------------------=

Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council
5th President of Iraq
In office
July 16, 1979 =E2=80=93 April 9, 2003
Preceded by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
Succeeded by Coalition Provisional Authority

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Born April 28, 1937 Death December 29 2006
until an official statement is released by Iraqi, US or UK forces-->
Tikrit, Iraq

Died December 30, 2006

Political party Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party
Spouse Sajida Talfah
Samira Shahbandar
Nidal al-Hamdani
Profession Lawyer
Religion Sunni Muslim
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: =D8=B5=D8=AF=D8=A7=D9=85 =

=D8=B9=D8=A8=D8=AF =D8=A7=D9=84=D9=85=D8=AC=D9=8A=D8=AF =D8=A7=D9=84=D8=

al-tikr=C4=ABt=C4=AB[1]; April 28, 1937[2] - December 30, 2006[3]). Under=

government, this date was his official date of birth. His real date of
birth was never recorded, but it is believed to be a date between 1935
and 1939. From Con Coughlin, Saddam The Secret Life Pan Books, 2003
(ISBN 0-330-39310-3).</ref> ), was the former President of Iraq, his
rule lasting from July 16, 1979 until April 9, 2003, when he was
deposed during the United States-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. As a
leading member of the Iraqi Baath Party, which espoused secular
pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and Arab socialism, Saddam played
a key role modernising Iraq and giving the country stability within the
region. He was an integral part of the 1968 coup that brought his party
to long-term power.

As vice president under his cousin, the frail General Ahmed Hassan
al-Bakr, Saddam tightly controlled conflict between the government and
the armed forces by creating repressive security forces and cementing
his own firm authority over the apparatus of government.

As president, Saddam ran an authoritarian government and maintained
power and stability in the country. During his rule the Iran-Iraq War
(1980=E2=80=931988) and the Gulf War (1991) occurred. He repressed moveme=

deemed threatening to the his regime, particularly those of ethnic or
religious groups that sought independence or autonomy along tribal
lines. He was and remains a popular hero among many Sunni Iraqis and
Arabs for standing up to Israel and the United States.

After the US invasion of Iraq, Saddam was eventually captured by U.S.
forces on December 13, 2003. On November 5, 2006, he was convicted of
crimes against humanity by the Iraq Special Tribunal and was sentenced
to death by hanging.[4] On December 26, Saddam's appeal was rejected
and the death sentence upheld. He was executed at 6:00 am (local time),
on 30th December, amist hightened security.

On December 30 at 10 pm EST, CNN reported that Saddam was executed by
hanging [13]

Contents [hide]
1 Youth
2 Rise to power
2.1 Modernization
2.2 Succession
3 Saddam Hussein as a secular leader
4 Foreign affairs
4.1 The Iran-Iraq War (1980=E2=80=931988)
4.2 Tensions with Kuwait
5 The Gulf War
5.1 Gulf War aftermath
6 1991=E2=80=932003
7 2003 Invasion of Iraq
7.1 Escape and capture
7.1.1 Escape
7.1.2 Capture
7.1.3 Incarceration
8 Trials
9 Execution
10 Marriage and family relationships
11 Trivia
12 Government positions held by Saddam Hussein
13 Notes
14 References
15 See also
16 External links



Youth
Saddam Hussein was born in the town of Al-Awja, 13 kilometres (8 mi)
from the Iraqi town of Tikrit in the Sunni Triangle, to a family of
shepherds. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her newborn son
"Saddam", which in Arabic means "One who confronts". He never knew his
father, Hussein 'Abd al-Majid, who disappeared six months before Saddam
was born. Shortly afterward, Saddam's 13-year-old brother died of
cancer, leaving his mother severely depressed in the final months of
the pregnancy. The infant Saddam was sent to the family of his maternal
uncle, Khairallah Talfah, until he was three.[5]

His mother remarried, and Saddam gained three half-brothers through
this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam
harshly after his return. At about the age of 10, Saddam fled the
family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle, Kharaillah
Tulfah. Tulfah, the father of Saddam's future wife, was a devout Sunni
Muslim. Later in his life, relatives from his native Tikrit would
become some of his closest advisors and supporters. According to
Saddam, he learned many things from his uncle, a militant Iraqi
nationalist. Under the guidance of his uncle, he attended a
nationalistic secondary school in Baghdad. In 1957, at age 20, Saddam
joined the revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was
a supporter.

Revolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and
throughout the Middle East. The stranglehold of the old elites (the
conservative monarchists, established families, and merchants) was
breaking down in Iraq. Moreover, the populist pan-Arab nationalism of
Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt would profoundly influence the young
Ba'athist, even up to the present day. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed
a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and
1960s, which would see the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq, Egypt,
and Libya. Nasser challenged the British and French, nationalized the
Suez Canal, and strove to modernize Egypt and unite the Arab world
politically.

In 1958, a year after Saddam had joined the Ba'ath party, army officers
led by General Abdul Karim Qassim overthrew Faisal II of Iraq. The
Ba'athists opposed the new government, and in 1959, Saddam was involved
in the attempted United States-backed plot to assassinate Qassim.[14]

Saddam was shot in the leg, but escaped to Tikrit with the help of CIA
and Egyptian intelligence agents. Saddam then crossed into Syria and
was transferred to Beirut for a brief CIA training course. From there
he moved to Cairo where he made frequent visits to the American
embassy. During this time the CIA placed him in an upper-class
apartment observed by CIA and Egyptian operatives. (UPI 'analysis'
article)

He was sentenced to death in absentia. Saddam studied law at the Cairo
University during his exile.


Rise to power
Concerned about Qassim's growing ties to Communists, the CIA gave
assistance to the Ba'ath Party and other regime opponents.[6] Army
officers with ties to the Ba'ath Party overthrew Qassim in a coup in
1963. Ba'athist leaders were appointed to the cabinet and Abdul Salam
Arif became president. Arif dismissed and arrested the Ba'athist
leaders later that year. Saddam returned to Iraq, but was imprisoned in
1964. He escaped prison in 1967 and quickly became a leading member of
the party. In 1968, Saddam participated in a bloodless coup led by
Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr that overthrew Abdul Rahman Arif. al-Bakr was
named president and Saddam was named his deputy. Saddam soon became the
regime's strongman. According to biographers, Saddam never forgot the
tensions within the first Ba'athist government, which informed his
measures to promote Ba'ath party unity as well as his ruthless resolve
to maintain power and programs to ensure social stability.

Soon after becoming deputy to the president, Saddam demanded and
received the rank of four-star general despite his lack of military
training.[7]


Saddam Hussein (left) talking with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (right)
Modernization
Saddam consolidated power in a nation riddled with profound tensions.
Long before Saddam, Iraq had been split along social, ethnic,
religious, and economic fault lines: Sunni versus Shi'ite, Arab versus
Kurd, tribal chief versus urban merchant, nomad versus peasant. Stable
rule in a country rife with factionalism required the improvement of
living standards. Saddam moved up the ranks in the new government by
aiding attempts to strengthen and unify the Ba'ath party and taking a
leading role in addressing the country's major domestic problems and
expanding the party's following.

Saddam actively fostered the modernization of the Iraqi economy along
with the creation of a strong security apparatus to prevent coups
within the power structure and insurrections apart from it. Ever
concerned with broadening his base of support among the diverse
elements of Iraqi society and mobilizing mass support, he closely
followed the administration of state welfare and development programs.

At the center of this strategy was Iraq's oil. On June 1, 1972, Saddam
oversaw the seizure of international oil interests, which, at the time,
had a monopoly on the country's oil. A year later, world oil prices
rose dramatically as a result of the 1973 energy crisis, and
skyrocketing revenues enabled Saddam to expand his agenda.

Within just a few years, Iraq was providing social services that were
unprecedented among Middle Eastern countries. Saddam established and
controlled the "National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy"
and the campaign for "Compulsory Free Education in Iraq," and largely
under his auspices, the government established universal free schooling
up to the highest education levels; hundreds of thousands learned to
read in the years following the initiation of the program. The
government also supported families of soldiers, granted free
hospitalization to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers. Iraq
created one of the most modernized public-health systems in the Middle
East, earning Saddam an award from the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). [15] [16]

To diversify the largely oil-based economy, Saddam implemented a
national infrastructure campaign that made great progress in building
roads, promoting mining, and developing other industries. The campaign
revolutionized Iraq's energy industries. Electricity was brought to
nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas.

Before the 1970s, most of Iraq's people lived in the countryside, where
Saddam himself was born and raised, and roughly two-thirds were
peasants. But this number would decrease quickly during the 1970s as
the country invested much of its oil profits into industrial expansion.

Nevertheless, Saddam focused intensely on fostering loyalty to the
Ba'athist government in the rural areas. After nationalizing foreign
oil interests, Saddam supervised the modernization of the countryside,
mechanizing agriculture on a large scale, and distributing land to
peasant farmers.[8] The Ba'athists established farm cooperatives, in
which profits were distributed according to the labors of the
individual and the unskilled were trained. The government's commitment
to agrarian reform was demonstrated by the doubling of expenditures for
agricultural development in 1974-1975. Moreover, agrarian reform in
Iraq improved the living standard of the peasantry and increased
production, though not to the levels Saddam had hoped for.

Saddam became personally associated with Ba'athist welfare and economic
development programs in the eyes of many Iraqis, widening his appeal
both within his traditional base and among new sectors of the
population. These programs were part of a combination of "carrot and
stick" tactics to enhance support in the working class, the peasantry,
and within the party and the government bureaucracy.

Saddam's organizational prowess was credited with Iraq's rapid pace of
development in the 1970s; development went forward at such a fevered
pitch that two million persons from other Arab countries and Yugoslavia
worked in Iraq to meet the growing demand for labor.

In 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed
forces, and rapidly became the strongman of the government. At the time
Saddam was considered an enemy of Communism and radical Islamism.
Saddam was integral to U.S. policy in the region, a policy which sought
to weaken the influence of Iran and the Soviet Union.[citation needed]
As the weak, elderly al-Bakr became unable to execute his duties,
Saddam took on an increasingly prominent role as the face of the
government both internally and externally. He soon became the architect
of Iraq's foreign policy and represented the nation in all diplomatic
situations. He was the de facto ruler of Iraq some years before he
formally came to power in 1979. He slowly began to consolidate his
power over Iraq's government and the Ba'ath party. Relationships with
fellow party members were carefully cultivated, and Saddam soon
accumulated a powerful circle of support within the party.


Succession
In 1979 al-Bakr started to make treaties with Syria, also under
Ba'athist leadership, that would lead to unification between the two
countries. Syrian President Hafez al-Assad would become deputy leader
in a union, and this would drive Saddam to obscurity. Saddam acted to
secure his grip on power. He forced the ailing al-Bakr to resign on
July 16, 1979, and formally assumed the presidency.

Shortly afterwards, he convened an assembly of Ba'ath party leaders on
July 22, 1979. During the assembly, which he ordered videotaped, Saddam
claimed to have found spies and conspirators within the Ba'ath Party
and read out the names of 68 members who he thought could oppose him.
These members were labeled "disloyal" and were removed from the room
one by one and taken into custody. After the list was read, Saddam
congratulated those still seated in the room for their past and future
loyalty. The 68 people arrested at the meeting were subsequently put on
trial, and 22 were sentenced to execution for treason.


Saddam Hussein as a secular leader
Saddam saw himself as a social revolutionary and a modernizer,
following the Nasser model. To the consternation of Islamic
conservatives, his government gave women added freedoms and offered
them high-level government and industry jobs. Saddam also created a
Western-style legal system, making Iraq the only country in the Persian
Gulf region not ruled according to traditional Islamic law (Sharia).
Saddam abolished the Sharia law courts, except for personal injury
claims.

Domestic conflict impeded Saddam's modernizing projects. Iraqi society
is divided along lines of language, religion and ethnicity; Saddam's
government rested on the support of the 20% minority of largely working
class, peasant, and lower middle class Sunnis, continuing a pattern
that dates back at least to the British mandate authority's reliance on
them as administrators.

The Shi'a majority were long a source of opposition to the government's
secular policies, and the Ba'ath Party was increasingly concerned about
potential Sh'ia Islamist influence following the Iranian Revolution of
1979. The Kurds of northern Iraq (who are Sunni Muslims but not Arabs)
were also permanently hostile to the Ba'athist party's pan-Arabism. To
maintain his regime Saddam tended either to provide them with benefits
so as to co-opt them into the regime, or to take repressive measures
against them. The major instruments for accomplishing this control were
the paramilitary and police organizations. Beginning in 1974, Taha
Yassin Ramadan, a close associate of Saddam, commanded the People's
Army, which was responsible for internal security. As the Ba'ath
Party's paramilitary, the People's Army acted as a counterweight
against any coup attempts by the regular armed forces. In addition to
the People's Army, the Department of General Intelligence (Mukhabarat)
was the most notorious arm of the state security system, feared for its
use of torture and assassination. It was commanded by Barzan Ibrahim
al-Tikriti, Saddam's younger half-brother. Since 1982, foreign
observers believed that this department operated both at home and
abroad in their mission to seek out and eliminate Saddam's perceived
opponents.[9]

Saddam justified Iraqi nationalism by claiming a unique role of Iraq in
the history of the Arab world. As president, Saddam made frequent
references to the Abbasid period, when Baghdad was the political,
cultural, and economic capital of the Arab world. He also promoted
Iraq's pre-Islamic role as Mesopotamia, the ancient cradle of
civilization, alluding to such historical figures as Nebuchadrezzar II
and Hammurabi. He devoted resources to archaeological explorations. In
effect, Saddam sought to combine pan-Arabism and Iraqi nationalism, by
promoting the vision of an Arab world united and led by Iraq.

As a sign of his consolidation of power, Saddam's personality cult
pervaded Iraqi society. Thousands of portraits, posters, statues and
murals were erected in his honor all over Iraq. His face could be seen
on the sides of office buildings, schools, airports, and shops, as well
as on Iraqi currency. Saddam's personality cult reflected his efforts
to appeal to the various elements in Iraqi society. He appeared in the
costumes of the Bedouin, the traditional clothes of the Iraqi peasant
(which he essentially wore during his childhood), and even Kurdish
clothing, but also appeared in Western suits, projecting the image of
an urbane and modern leader. Sometimes he would also be portrayed as a
devout Muslim, wearing full headdress and robe, praying toward Mecca.


Foreign affairs
In foreign affairs, Saddam sought to have Iraq play a leading role in
the Middle East. Iraq signed an aid pact with the Soviet Union in 1972,
and arms were sent along with several thousand advisers. However, the
1978 executions of Iraqi Communists and a shift of trade toward the
West strained Iraqi relations with the Soviet Union, leading to a more
Western orientation from then until the Gulf War in 1991, though Saddam
continued to receive the largest share of his armaments from the Soviet
bloc.

He made a state visit to France in 1976, cementing close ties with some
French business and conservative political circles. Saddam led Arab
opposition to the 1979 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. In
1975 he negotiated an accord with Iran that contained Iraqi concessions
on border disputes. In return, Iran agreed to stop supporting
opposition Kurds in Iraq.

Saddam initiated Iraq's nuclear enrichment project in the 1980s, with
French assistance. The first Iraqi nuclear reactor was named by the
French "Osirak", a portmanteau formed from "Osiris", the name of the
French experimental reactor that served as template and "Irak", the
French spelling of "Iraq". Osirak was destroyed by an Israeli air
strike (Operation Opera), because Israel suspected it was going to
start producing weapons-grade nuclear material.

After Saddam had negotiated the 1975 treaty with Iran, Shah Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi withdrew support for the Kurds, who suffered a total
defeat. Nearly from its founding as a modern state in 1920, Iraq has
had to deal with Kurdish separatists in the northern part of the
country. Saddam did negotiate an agreement in 1970 with separatist
Kurdish leaders, giving them autonomy, but the agreement broke down.
The result was brutal fighting between the government and Kurdish
groups and even Iraqi bombing of Kurdish villages in Iran, which caused
Iraqi relations with Iran to deteriorate.


The Iran-Iraq War (1980=E2=80=931988)

Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President
Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983Main article: Iran-Iraq
War
In 1979 Iran's Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown in the
Islamic Revolution, thus giving way to an Islamic republic led by
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The influence of revolutionary Shi'ite
Islam grew apace in the region, particularly in countries with large
Shi'ite populations, especially Iraq. Saddam feared that radical
Islamic ideas =E2=80=94 hostile to his secular rule =E2=80=94 were rapidly
spreading in southern Iraq among the majority Shi'ite population.

There had also been bitter enmity between Saddam and Khomeini since the
1970s. Khomeini, having been exiled from Iran in 1964, took up
residence in Iraq, at the Shi'ite holy city of An Najaf. There he
involved himself with Iraqi Shi'ites and developed a strong, worldwide
religious and political following. Under pressure from the Shah, who
had agreed to a rapprochement between Iraq and Iran in 1975, Saddam
agreed to expel Khomeini in 1978.

After Khomeini gained power, skirmishes between Iraq and revolutionary
Iran occurred for ten months over the sovereignty of the disputed
Arvandrud/Shatt al-Arab waterway, which divides the two countries.
During this period, Saddam Hussein continually maintained that it was
in Iraq's interest not to engage with Iran, and that it was in the
interests of both nations to maintain peaceful relations. However, in a
private meeting with Salah Omar Al-Ali, Iraq's permanent ambassador to
the United Nations, he revealed that he intended to invade and occupy a
large part of Iran within months. Iraq invaded Iran by attacking
Mehrabad Airport of Tehran and entering the oil-rich Iranian land of
Khuzestan, which also has a sizeable Arab minority, on September 22,
1980 and declared it a new province of Iraq. Most Arab nations and the
United States supported him with artillery and medical supplies during
this time.

In the first days of the war, there was heavy ground fighting around
strategic ports as Iraq launched an attack on Khuzestan. After making
some initial gains, Iraq's troops began to suffer losses from human
wave attacks by Iran. By 1982, Iraq was on the defensive and looking
for ways to end the war. At this point, Saddam asked his ministers for
candid advice. Health Minister Riyadh Ibrahim suggested that Saddam
temporarily step down to promote peace negotiations. Ibrahim=E2=80=99s
chopped up body was delivered to his wife the next day.[10]

Iraq quickly found itself bogged down in one of the longest and most
destructive wars of attrition of the twentieth century. During the war,
Iraq used Western supplied chemical weapons against Iranian forces
fighting on the southern front and Kurdish separatists who were
attempting to open up a northern front in Iraq with the help of
Iran.[11]

On March 16, 1988, the Kurdish town of Halabja was attacked with a mix
of mustard gas and nerve agents, killing 5,000 civilians, and maiming,
disfiguring, or seriously debilitating 10,000 more. (see Halabja poison
gas attack) [17]. The attack occurred in conjunction with the 1988
al-Anfal campaign designed to reassert central control of the mostly
Kurdish population of areas of northern Iraq and defeat the Kurdish
peshmerga rebel forces. The United States now maintains that Saddam
ordered the attack to terrorize the Kurdish population in northern Iraq
([18]), but Saddam's regime claimed at the time that Iran was
responsible for the attack[12] and the US supported the claim until the
early 1990s.

Saddam reached out to other Arab governments for cash and political
support during the war, particularly after Iraq's oil industry severely
suffered at the hands of the Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf. Iraq
successfully gained some military and financial aid, as well as
diplomatic and moral support, from the United States, the Soviet Union,
and France, which together feared the prospects of the expansion of
revolutionary Iran's influence in the region. The Iranians, claiming
that the international community should force Iraq to pay war
reparations to Iran, refused any suggestions for a cease-fire. They
continued the war until 1988, hoping to bring down Saddam's secular
regime and instigate a Shi'ite rebellion in Iraq.

The bloody eight-year war ended in a stalemate. There were hundreds of
thousands of casualties, perhaps upwards of 1.7 million died on both
sides. Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in
ruins.

Saddam borrowed a tremendous amount of money from other Arab states
during the 1980s to fight Iran and was stuck with a war debt of roughly
$75 billion. Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, Saddam
desperately sought out cash once again, this time for postwar
reconstruction. The desperate search for foreign credit would
eventually humiliate the strongman [citation needed] who had long
sought to dominate Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East.


Tensions with Kuwait
The end of the war with Iran served to deepen latent tensions between
Iraq and its wealthy neighbor Kuwait. Saddam saw his war with Iran as
having spared Kuwait from the imminent threat of Iranian domination.
Since the struggle with Iran had been fought for the benefit of the
other Gulf Arab states as much as for Iraq, he argued, a share of Iraqi
debt should be forgiven. Saddam urged the Kuwaitis to forgive the Iraqi
debt accumulated in the war, some $30 billion, but the Kuwaitis
refused, claiming that Saddam was responsible to pay off his debts for
the war he started.

Also to raise money for postwar reconstruction, Saddam pushed
oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices by cutting back oil
production. Kuwait refused to cut production. In addition to refusing
the request, Kuwait spearheaded the opposition in OPEC to the cuts that
Saddam had requested. Kuwait was pumping large amounts of oil, and thus
keeping prices low, when Iraq needed to sell high-priced oil from its
wells to pay off a huge debt.

Meanwhile, Saddam showed disdain for the Kuwait-Iraq boundary line
(imposed on Iraq by British imperial officials in 1922) because it
almost completely cut Iraq off from the sea. One of the few articles of
faith uniting the political scene in a nation rife with sharp social,
ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic divides was the belief that Kuwait
had no right to even exist in the first place. For at least half a
century, Iraqi nationalists were espousing emphatically the belief that
Kuwait was historically an integral part of Iraq, and that Kuwait had
only come into being through the maneuverings of British imperialism.

The colossal extent of Kuwaiti oil reserves also intensified tensions
in the region. The oil reserves of Kuwait (with a population of a mere
2 million next to Iraq's 25) were roughly equal to those of Iraq. Taken
together, Iraq and Kuwait sat on top of some 20% of the world's known
oil reserves; Saudi Arabia, by comparison, holds 25%.

The Kuwaiti monarchy further angered Saddam by allegedly slant drilling
oil out of wells that Iraq considered to be within its disputed border
with Kuwait. Given that at the time Iraq was not regarded as a pariah
state, Saddam was able to complain about the alleged slant drilling to
the U.S. State Department. Although this had continued for years,
Saddam now needed oil money to stem a looming economic crisis. Saddam
still had an experienced and well-equipped army, which he used to
influence regional affairs. He later ordered troops to the Iraq-Kuwait
border.

As Iraq-Kuwait relations rapidly deteriorated, Saddam was receiving
conflicting information about how the U.S. would respond to the
prospects of an invasion. For one, Washington had been taking measures
to cultivate a constructive relationship with Iraq for roughly a
decade. [citation needed] The U.S. also sent billions of dollars to
Saddam to keep him from forming a strong alliance with the Soviets.
[13]

U.S. ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie met with Saddam in an emergency
meeting on July 25, 1990, where the Iraqi leader stated his intention
to continue talks. U.S. officials attempted to maintain a conciliatory
line with Iraq, indicating that while George H. W. Bush and James Baker
did not want force used, they would not take any position on the
Iraq-Kuwait boundary dispute and did not want to become involved. The
transcript, however, does not show any explicit statement of approval
of, acceptance of, or foreknowledge of the invasion. Later, Iraq and
Kuwait then met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam
then sent his troops into Kuwait.


The Gulf War
Main article: Gulf War
On August 2, 1990, Saddam invaded and annexed the oil-rich emirate of
Kuwait. U.S. President George H. W. Bush responded cautiously for the
first several days after the invasion. On the one hand, Kuwait, prior
to this point, had been a virulent enemy of Israel and was on friendly
terms with the Soviets. On the other hand, Iraq controlled ten percent
of the world's crude oil reserves and with the invasion had doubled the
percentage. [19] U.S. interests were heavily invested in the
region,[14] and the invasion triggered fears that the price of oil, and
therefore the world economy, was at stake. The United Kingdom was also
concerned. Britain had a close historical relationship with Kuwait,
dating back to British colonialism in the region, and also benefited
from billions of dollars in Kuwaiti investment. British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher underscored the risk the invasion posed to Western
interests to Bush in an in-person meeting one day after the invasion,
famously telling him, "Don't go wobbly on me, George". [citation
needed]

Cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union made
possible the passage of resolutions in the United Nations Security
Council giving Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and approving the use of
force if Saddam did not comply with the timetable. U.S. officials
feared that Iraq would retaliate against oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a close
ally of Washington since the 1940s, for the Saudis' opposition to the
invasion of Kuwait. Accordingly, the U.S. and a group of allies,
including countries as diverse as Egypt, Syria and Czechoslovakia,
deployed massive amounts of troops along the Saudi border with Kuwait
and Iraq in order to encircle the Iraqi army, the largest in the Middle
East.

During the period of negotiations and threats following the invasion,
Saddam focused renewed attention on the Palestinian problem by
promising to withdraw his forces from Kuwait if Israel would relinquish
the occupied territories in the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the
Gaza Strip. Saddam's proposal further split the Arab world, pitting
U.S. and Western-supported Arab states against the Palestinians. The
allies ultimately rejected any connection between the Kuwait crisis and
Palestinian issues.

Saddam ignored the Security Council deadline. With unanimous backing
from the Security Council, a U.S.-led coalition launched
round-the-clock missile and aerial attacks on Iraq, beginning January
16, 1991. Israel, though subjected to attack by Iraqi missiles,
refrained from retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into
leaving the coalition. A ground force comprised largely of U.S. and
British armored and infantry divisions ejected Saddam's army from
Kuwait in February 1991 and occupied the southern portion of Iraq as
far as the Euphrates. Before leaving, Saddam ordered the oil wells
across Kuwait to be torched (see Kuwaiti oil fires).

On March 6, 1991, referring to the conflict, Bush announced: "What is
at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea - a new world
order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to
achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security,
freedom, and the rule of law."

In the end, the over-manned and under-equipped Iraqi army proved unable
to compete on the battlefield with the highly mobile coalition land
forces and their overpowering air support. Some 175,000 Iraqis were
taken prisoner and casualties were estimated at approximately 20,000
according to U.S. data, with other sources pinning the number as high
as 100,000. As part of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to abandon
all chemical and biological weapons and allow UN observers to inspect
the sites. UN trade sanctions would remain in effect until Iraq
complied with all terms.


Gulf War aftermath
Main article: 1991 uprisings in Iraq
Iraq's ethnic and religious divisions, together with the resulting
postwar devastation, laid the groundwork for new rebellions within the
country. In the aftermath of the fighting, social and ethnic unrest
among Shi'a Muslims, Kurds, and dissident military units threatened the
stability of Saddam's government. Uprisings began in the Kurdish north
and Shi'a southern and central parts of Iraq, but were ruthlessly
repressed. In 2005 the BBC reported that as many as 30,000 persons had
been killed during the 1991 uprisings [20].

The United States, which had urged Iraqis to rise up against Saddam,
did nothing to assist the rebellions and even lifted the Iraqi no-fly
zones which allowed Saddam's forces to crush the rebellions. U.S. ally
Turkey opposed any prospect of Kurdish independence, and the Saudis and
other conservative Arab states feared an Iran-style Shi'a revolution.
Saddam, having survived the immediate crisis in the wake of defeat and
a car crash, which left a small scar in his face and a injury on a
finger, according to his now defected personal doctor, was left firmly
in control of Iraq, although the country never recovered either
economically or militarily from the Persian Gulf War. Saddam routinely
cited his survival as "proof" that Iraq had in fact won the war against
America. This message earned Saddam a great deal of popularity in many
sectors of the Arab world.

Saddam increasingly portrayed himself as a devout Muslim, in an effort
to co-opt the conservative religious segments of society. Some elements
of Sharia law were re-introduced, such as the 2001 edict imposing the
death penalty for sodomy, rape, and prostitution, the legalization of
"honor killings" and the ritual phrase "Allahu Akbar". "God is the
greatest", in Saddam's handwriting, was added to the national flag.


1991=E2=80=932003
Relations between the Unit