June 1, 2003

In view of the murder and mayhem associated with the name of Saddam Hussein, it would be unrealistic to expect an unbiased account of his life by any author, least of all a western writer. Con Coughlin makes his inclination clear when he observes in the preface that ‘writing a biography of Saddam Hussein is like trying to assemble the prosecution case against a notorious criminal gangster’.

In a later chapter he observes that shortly before 9/11 Saddam placed his troops on the highest alert. The insinuation being that he was privy to what was going to happen in New York. Laboured attempt is also made to establish a relationship between Al Qaeda and the Saddam regime. There are chapter headings like ‘assassin’, ‘outlaw’, ‘avenger’, ‘terrorist’, which lead one to suspect that Coughlin was preparing a hatchet job on the favourite hate figure of the Anglo-American world. But as the narrative proceeds the author gives a well researched account of the rise of Saddam and the convoluted politics of post second world war Iraq.

Saddam Hussein was born about sixty-six years ago in an impoverished village on the outskirts of Tikrit, a town in northern Iraq. Not much is known about his early life except that he had an unhappy and deprived childhood. While he was still very young his father disappeared from the scene. It is generally assumed that he abandoned the family and perhaps married again. His mother who earned a pittance was too poor to support him or send him to school. She sent him to live with her brother Khairullah Tulfah, an army officer then living in Tikrit.

This was perhaps the happiest period of Saddam’s childhood, Khairullah was a fervent nationalist, admirer of Nazi Germany and a British hater. It seems that he became a father figure and role model for Saddam. The idyll came to an end when Khairullah was discovered to be involved in an anti-government plot, cashiered from the army and sent to prison of five years.

Saddam had to be sent back to his mother who had re-married and produced three sons for the new husband. The step father did not take kindly to Saddam. He was not sent to school and used as a domestic help and subjected to frequent beatings. Strangely, Saddam remained on the friendliest terms with his three half brothers and gave them positions of trust and importance when he became all powerful.

When Khairullah completed his prison term and returned to Tikrit to become a school teacher, the young Saddam was taken back and put in the primary school there. When Khairullah moved to Baghdad Saddam went with him. His great ambition was to enter the Military Academy but he failed the entrance examination. This was a period of political effervescence.

A frequent visitor to the Khairullah household was Gen Ahmad Hasan Al Bakr, a sympathizer of Baath. Saddam’s introduction to Al Bakr was perhaps the most important event in his life. He was encouraged to work for the Baath allegedly because he had become an effective street fighter and gang leader. True or not, his full membership of the party was made on the recommendation of Michel Aflak, founder of the party whose credo was socialism and Arab unity.

The 1958 coup mounted by Kassem in which the royal family was slaughtered was welcomed by the Baath. It was hoped that Kassem would work for the Arab union ardently desired by the party. These hopes were dashed when Kassem adopted a policy of Iraq first and even made friends with the communists, the sworn enemies of the Baath. The removal of Kassem now became the first priority of the party.

The first attempt to assassinate Kassem in which Saddam also had a role was bungled and Saddam escaped to Cairo, where he lived until 1963 and would regularly meet the head of the CIA stationed there. With Kassem’s overthrow and the appointment of Gen Ahmad Hasan el Bakr as the prime minister by the new president, Saddam joyfully returned from exile to take up a position in the Iraqi Baath party.

Another coup became a moment of triumph for el Bakr and also Saddam who became the President’s first assistant. In the decade that followed Saddam kept a low profile, worked with diligence and made himself indispensable to the President. His fellow workers were astonished with the ease that he mastered any brief. The secret service or services that he organized soon had their tentacles in every branch of the party, military, government and indeed civil society.

As the years passed el Bakr delegated more and more authority to Saddam. Finally the latter came to control all levers of power and on his suggestion President Ahmad Hasan el Bakr announced his retirement and proposed the name of “comrade” Saddam Hussein for the succession in 1979. So at the age of 42 the erstwhile assistant to the President assumed the supreme office.

On assuming the Presidency Saddam’s first act was to call a meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council. When the members were all assembled he began calling out the names of those alleged to be spies or foreign agents. As each name was called the person was taken away in custody. Removing real or perceived enemies or rivals has been a rite of passage of all dictators. Saddam added a new twist by requiring the surviving members of the RCC to take part in the execution of those who had been removed.

When Saddam assumed the Presidency the foreign exchange reserves of Iraq stood at a staggering 35 billion dollars. Wealth and supreme power released the megalomania concealed so far. He embarked on a programme of rearmament. Coughlin does not mince words about the active cooperation that Saddam received from the industrialized world. Ready to participate in the arms bonanza they also furnished him with the material to make chemical and biological weapons.

Saddam also launched a programme of industrialization. A system of social security unknown in the Arab world was introduced. Medical cover and free education upto university level was made available for all Iraqis. In search of glory and perhaps revenge, he denounced the Algiers accord on the Shatt el Arab and started a savage war against Iran. The war lasted eight years and on the verge of defeat Saddam was rescued by the west. But the country was demoralized and the economy destroyed.

In order to rebuild Iraq he asked the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia to write off the debt of forty billion dollars and advance thirty billion more. Their demurral was the casus belli for the Gulf War in which Saddam attacked and occupied Kuwait. The coalition which then evicted him from Kuwait did not follow up their crushing victory by taking Baghdad.

The allies were afraid of a revolution in Iraq of which they had a foretaste in Iran. This fear enabled Saddam to crush with great barbarity the rebellion of the Kurds and the Shias. The American CIA and British M15 subsequently tried to organize coups d’etat but so efficient were the Iraqi secret services that all these attempts were frustrated.

In considering Saddam’s career we must take into account the blood soaked contemporary history of Iraq. Saddam was not different from his predecessors only more ‘efficient’ if that is the right word. Not only did he decimate enemies but even those vaguely connected with them. He was successful in establishing a rein of terror. However, the American war on Iraq is not in aid of the long suffering people of Iraq but a part of the Israeli agenda for the Middle East and of course oil.

Saddam: The Secret Life
By Con Coughlin
Macmillan. Available at Paramount Books, 152/O, Block 2, PECH Society, Karachi-75400
Tel: 021-4310030
Email: paramount@cyber.net.pk
ISBN 1-4050-2081-4. 350pp. Rs475

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)