12. Furthermore, Saddam wants to be recognized as
an undefeatable hero. During the war with Iran he ordered his
media to call him “Salladin”, the historical Arab Muslem
leader, who defeated the "crusades" and "nonbelievers",
in the Middle Ages, (15th century).He changed his birth date to
be identified with that of Prophet Mohammed and announced repeatedly
in his speeches addressing his people that he is also an orphan
just like Prophet Mohammed. He announced during the Gulf war in
1991, through a speech covered by world wide media that he comes
from the same family of the prophet, aiming to impress Moslems
not only in his country, but all over the world. Because of this,
Saddam received support from most Moslem countries, like Pakistan
and Jordan , where he is considered the hero who will save Islam.
13. Saddam was not looked after when he was an
infant neither from his mother who was too busy looking for a
husband, nor from his father who neglected him and has never asked
about him or wanted to see him. Saddam was brought up with a crisis
of basic mistrust. As an adult, mistrust became one of his main
characteristics. He doesn’t trust any of his assistants,
which explains executions of members of his government, every
now and then, for showing minimum disapproval of any of his ideas.
Saddam thinks that by killing his aids who do not agree with him
will help him avoid conspiracies; such as, coup d'etat or assassination
attempts.In addition, changing his sleeping place every night
and having a Republican Guard tastes his food for him before he
eats it, is another good example of his mistrust crisis.
14. Moreover, Saddam fellowship to his hometown,
Tikrit seems to substitute his fidelity to a religion.This explains
the idea behind the establishment of a Republican Guards' body,
which includes Iraqis who are from his hometown, Tikrit, only.
Other Iraqis who come from different parts of Iraq are denied
access to this private military body. Some might argue that Saddam's
affiliation to Baath Party should substitute his faith to a religion.This
argument may be valid before he invaded kuwait in 1990, because
by this aggression he violated a major principle of Baath Party
which calls for the unity of Arab nations by their free will,
and not by force.By attacking and occupying an Arab country, Saddam
proved that his faith in Baath ideology is fake and whatever slogans
or announcements he has been stating, in the past and curently,
on the issue of Arab unification were issued for mere propaganda
purposes to gaind support and secure his authority.
15. As we can see, Saddam is addicted to power and
his strong, agressive, and harsh personality is an essential elelment
found in all dictators.As a dictator Saddam is determined to reach
his targets even if it means the loss of thousands of people including
women and children. Saddam can be eliminated by the world powers
with little effort, but many issues might arise from such action.
Some of these issues are the questions of what would happen to Iraq
once Saddam is gone? Who would take over next? It could be someone
even worse than Saddam? What would happen to the neighboring Arab
countries? How would Iran react? I don't have straight or accurate
answers to these questions now and there have always been unanswered
questions in history, all the time.