iraq & bush
... true atrocities. Hussein ruled with an iron fist. Most accounts of political analysts looking at Iraq agree that his rein was one characterized by fear of the state. In her book, The Outlaw State, Elaine Sciolino describes Hussein as “a man who used a combination of terror and reward to break the spirit of his people.” Through the use of secret police, the Baath Party and the army, Saddam controlled every aspect of Iraqi life. As one American reporter quoted as driving through Iraq, “From the Saddam International Airport, heading down the Saddam Freeway, past Saddam City and the Saddam Water Purification Plant, we sped by Saddam institutes, Saddam housing estates, Saddam boys’ clubs, Saddam sports arenas, Saddam hospitals, Saddam cafes, and, of course, dozens of Saddam billboards, statues, mosaic walls, and monster outdoor portraits.” Any opposition to his political views was irradiated. For example, membership in the opposition party ShiaDawa was punishable by death. One of its leaders, Iyatollah Baqr al-Sadr, was executed, along with members of his family, by orders from Saddam Hussein. There is significant evidence indicating that Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran during their 8-year war, which is condemned universally by the international community. Hussein is quoted as saying in an interview with Spanish television, “America used nuclear weapons against Japan. Israel possesses nuclear weapons- you and the whole world know about this. Iraq, therefore, has the right to possess the weapons, which its enemy has... America moreover, used chemical weapons against the people of Vietnam. The USSR also used chemical weapons against the people of Afghanistan. So talk about Iraqi use of chemical weapons is insincere and hypocritical.” Most accounts of Saddam’s rise to power in his tenure as leader of Iraq indicate that he constantly used murder, torture, lies, and terror to achieve his goals. In addition to these hard facts, his physical characteristics, mannerisms, and someway-naive attempts at portraying himself as a great hero and leader (even God-like) made him more susceptible to criticism and contempt by the American people. The dark moustache, the heavy eyebrows and swarthy appearance made it easy for the media to find photographs projecting images of evil and malfeasance. The fact that Hussein always wore military garb, that he portrayed himself as a warrior (when, in fact, he was never in the military) also played to the U.S. public fears. Quotes by Hussein comparing himself to Nebuchadnezzar gave credence to claims of messianic delusions and mental instability by the United States. The Bush administration engaged in an unprecedented campaign to frighten the American people as to the threat that Saddam Hussein posed. “We’re dealing with Hitler revisited, a totalitarianism and brutality that is naked and unprecedented in modern times,” Bush is quoted as stating at a campaign rally in 1990. Opinion polls during this period of the crisis showed that the American public did not place very much importance on the charges that Iraq was an aggressor or that its chemical and biological capabilities posed a serious threat to the United States. But the American public did take seriously the charge (which Bush played up on frequently) that Iraq would soon develop a stockpile of nuclear weapons. . Bush also played up the fact that Hussein was intractable- that the U.S. consistently tried peaceful negations with Hussein, but that he was focused on aggression. When Bush was asked by a reporter if war might have been avoided if the U.S. had been tougher with Saddam Hussein, Bush replied, “Well, we tried the peaceful route; we tried working with him and changing [him] through contact... The lesson is clear in this case that that didn’t work.” The Bush administration turned to supposedly objective experts for support of the argument that Saddam was a dangerous man who needed to be stopped. Quoting Jerrold Post, a former psychiatrist at George Washington University, who had analyzed Saddam’s actions for the U.S. Government, “Saddam is not crazy. [But] he has the most dangerous personality configuration, which we call malignant narcissism. He has no concern for the pain or suffering of other. [He has] a paranoid outlook [with] messianic dreams.” Quotes such as these coupled with ongoing reports with how close the Iraqis were to developing nuclear capabilities developed the kind of support that the Bush administration was looking for in ord...