Who Makes Saddam a Model?

Many books have been published around the world. They have addressed the personality of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, his childhood, his secret world, his brutality in power, his barbaric behavior, his tyranny, his rise to power, his upbringing, his Ba’athist culture, his novels, his poetry, his glories, his entourage, his killings, and his massacres. Saddam has become a brutal model of an Arab and international dictator, as illustrated by Iraqi novelist and researcher Salam Abboud in his book “Who Makes a Dictator? (Saddam Hussein as a Model).” He previously published “The Culture of Violence in Iraq” (2002) in the same context, published by Dar Al-Jamal. In his new book, Salam Abboud cites selected historical events, evidence, and political statements to arrive at the truth about the making of a dictator of Saddam Hussein’s stature… this thorny subject that has upended many balances, starting with moral, humanitarian, and social issues, and leading to signs of serious change in the geographical map of the region. Through his book, Aboud attempts to portray the dictator as a plant that emerged from the fertile soil of Iraqi society and its history. The book sheds light on historical evidence from different time periods, some of which is contemporary, relating to the structure of Iraqi society and its psychological, social, and political makeup, rather than to Saddam Hussein. The book adopts two closely related approaches: “the structure of Iraqi society” and “the structure of the dictator.” We often find the two concepts combined in a single phrase or topic, especially when the author presents us with numerous phenomena that have affected Iraqi society from the beginning of the dictatorial rule to the present day, shedding light on the force that created the dictator and served as the broad gateway for the implementation of all his schemes. Among these phenomena is the phenomenon of “worst-case scenarios,” which he described as society’s view of reality through inferior comparisons that can only be described as a state of humiliation that is rampant within the soul, through the comparison between evil and evil, killer and killer, Iran or America, Saddam or Bush, Al-Qaeda or the neo-conservatives… Then there is the phenomenon of “using history as evidence to prove accusations, rather than as a subject of study.” The author does not stray far from the well-known theses regarding the reasons for Saddam Hussein’s personal cruelty, referring them to the cruelty of his early life and the early orphanhood to which he was exposed. He depicts Saddam as an evil child who entertained himself by heating iron rods with which he slits open the bellies of animals, and who did not hesitate to place snakes in the pockets of teachers he disliked. Similar behavior, albeit in a less brutal form, is found in the book “The Radio State,” by Ibrahim al-Zubaidi, Saddam’s childhood friend. Al-Zubaidi is a former Baathist who worked with the Americans on the project to restore democracy to Iraq. Other books discuss Saddam’s early childhood after being beaten by his stepfather. But was Saddam’s childhood and upbringing the decisive factor in making him a dictator, or was it the political world that created this miserable outcast child into a tyrant, a “great tyrant”? Not all those who documented Saddam Hussein’s life have reached the same level as the writers presented by Salam Abboud. Writer Mark Badon sees otherwise in “The Story of a Tyrant.” He believes there was a dramatic change in Saddam’s personality that puzzled many foreign observers, making his actions and deeds even baffle psychologists. Abboud demonstrates that Saddam Hussein, as a dictator, would not have achieved his exceptional individual traits without an army of intellectuals and writers who crafted the dictator’s characteristics. A dictator does not create all of his characteristics himself; rather, they are created for him by a mercenary, cold-hearted apparatus whose sole goal is to fabricate a false and deceptive image of the dictator and his political, social, and intellectual exploits, so that this is the only image presented to society. An army of corrupt intellectuals and writers sought to reinforce the uniqueness of the dictator Saddam Hussein not only with poetic praise, but also with false theories glorifying force and war as an essential part of the violent premise upon which the dictator’s psychological structure and political project were based. Not content with that, they sought to portray the dictator as a unique expert and omniscient, supporting this with concrete examples drawn from real life and history.