After spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured on December 13, 2003. During his 24 years in office, Saddam’s secret police, charged with protecting his power, terrorized the public, ignoring the human rights of the nation’s citizens. While many of his people faced poverty, he lived in incredible luxury, building more than 20 lavish palaces throughout the country. It was fitting that, in the end, he was hiding in nothing more than a hole in the ground covered by plywood.
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December 13th is also the birthday of Sergeant Alvin York.
It was more fitting that, at the very end, the Butcher of Baghdad was twisting by his neck from the scaffold.
Sic semper tyrannis – in any country.
Saddam Hussein was installed in power by the US,he was a faithful and obedient puppet upto and including asking HW Bush permission to reclaim the breakaway province of Kuwait. He was given permission to procede but was double crossed by US media who passed the facts and put on a propaganda show(remember the “nurse”,who was in reality a Princess,who claimed baby’s were thrown out windows) to restore the Emir from exile in Paris and Oil men to Iraqi oil fields. Saddam was not captured but sold($20,000,000+?) after a long game of where’s waldo, he was deprived of a trial(that would of embarrassed many politicians) and murdered. Only if we know the true history can we not repeat its mistakes.
I was deployed in Iraq and working in the Green Zone supervising 56 Iraqis (and some others) the day this news broke. The entire office cheered wildly. I looked at the 0-6 who was my boss (I was ops manage) and he asked me what I thought. I told him we should give the Iraqis the day off. We did; and they appreciated it. Of note, my secretary, an Iraqi female, looked at me that day and said sorrowfully ‘Sir, you didn’t kill enough Iraqis’. She meant it in the best sense, and her comments were prescient as the entire operation in Iraq began to suffer the long period of insurgent activities to follow.