Saddam: A look back

March 18, 2003 9:07 PM

"Saddam the paranoid tyrant can be traced back to Saddam the persecuted village boy" He went from an illegitimate birth, to living with a harsh step-father, to leader of a nation about to be on the other side of war with the United States for a second time. Take a look back at Saddam Hussein.
posted by RobbieFal (2 comments total)

Brutality squared. The close uncle who was a Hitler fanatic can't have helped. I suppose what's scariest about it is the stew of poverty, violence, fantasies of inferiority/superiority, that one might imagine is easily reproducible throughout the Arab world. Those of us who fear that this war will generate much more terrorism than it is intended to stop, won't be reassured by this piece. Can 'being Arab' mean something different? Or are we about to evaporate (literally) the very popular will that might make an Arab democracy possible? Meantime, I muse over this Pro-war thinkpiece from an Iraqi intellectual, and hope that he's right. Pax vobiscum.
posted by theplayethic at 1:43 AM on March 19, 2003

I guy I went to school with is part of Saddam's extended family: his dad is like Saddam's cousin's cousin or something.

His dad said that he went swimming with Saddam as a kid and Saddam used to do things like hold the other kids underwater for fun.

I guess you don't create a neostalinist police state by being a nice guy.
posted by ednopantz at 11:20 AM on March 19, 2003