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Saddam Hussein

Childhood

Saddam Hussein was born on April 28th, 1937. He was born into the village, Al-Awja, and experienced a very troubling childhood. Before the birth of Saddam, his father had disappeared. Shortly after his birth, Saddam's brother had passed due to cancer. His mother became too depressed to properly care for him and eventually remarried a man that abused Saddam. Saddam ran away to live with his uncle, Khairallah Talfah. Talfah became his biggest role model and majorly influenced his political views. Saddam graduated secondary school and instantly joined his uncles political party, Arab Baa'th Socialist Party, a revolutionary force.

Arab Baa'th Socialist Party

In July of 1968, the socialist party organized a take over of the Iraqi government. To which they were successful. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, assumed the role as president and Saddam was named vice president, as he had become an integral part to the organization. Although Ahmed was the president, Saddam took control in leading the country to a more stable and productive period. He used revenues from oil to institute major economic reform and launched social programs. Ahmed ruled from 1969 and stepped down as president in 1979, Saddam Hussein quickly took the role as president.

Saddam For President

The support for Saddam was not universal. The followers of Islam did not agree with Saddams innovations. ″On July 22, 1979, just days after taking over the presidency, he organized an assembly of Baa'th leaders and read aloud the names of suspected spies; these people were taken from the room and publicly executed by firing squad. A few years later, in 1982, he ordered the execution of at least three hundred officers who had supposedly questioned his military tactics″ Saddam became known as a very insecure and unstable leader, he had extreme paranoia. He would not sleep, when he did it was in secret locations, and he had his food carefully inspected by food tasters.

At War

Saddam had a quest for dominance in the Middle East. In 1980, he attacked Iran which led to an eight year war and ended with no real victory. Saddam then invaded Kuwait in August 1990, which he refused to leave. The U.S. and United Nations stepped in and forced Hussein to evacuate, tensions were still high. U.S. president, Bush, accused Saddam of concealing weapons. ″In January of 2003 Bush gave Saddam an ultimatum: either totally disarm his country or voluntarily leave Iraq. If neither step was taken, the United States would attack″. Thousands of U.S. and British troops stormed Iraq in search of Hussein. On December 13, 2003, Hussein was found in a "spider hole" miles from his hometown. He surrendered without resisting.