Iraq & saddam Hussein

SADDAM HUSSEIN

•Population: 22 million•Arabs (75%), Kurds (20%)•Shi’ites (65% of Iraqi Arabs)•Sunni (35% of Iraqi Arabs + nearly all Kurds)

GENERAL INFORMATION• Born April 28, 1937 in

the village of Al-Awja in Tikrit.• President of Iraq from

1979 to 2003. • Espoused secular pan-

Arabism, economic uplift, modernization, and socialism.

BA’ATHISM

• The Movement was formed in 1940 by Michel Aflaq.• Involved in Anti-colonial Arab nationalist militant activities.• A secular ideology to unify Arab-States.• A Ba'athist society seeks enlightenment, renaissance of

Arab culture, values and society.• Ba'athism is based on principles of Arab nationalism, pan-

Arabism, Arab socialism, as well as social progress

SADDAMISM

• A distinct variation of Ba'athism.• It espouses Iraqi nationalism and an Iraq-

centred Arab world that calls upon Arab countries to adopt Saddamist Iraqi political discourse.

RISE IN BA’ATH PARTY• At age 20, Saddam joined the revolutionary pan-

Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was a supporter.

In 1949 Saddam was involved in the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Qassim. Saddam returned to Iraq, but was imprisoned in 1964.

CONT…

• He escaped from jail in 1967 and became one of the leading members of the party.• In July 1968 a second coup brought the

Ba'athists back to power under General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr a Tikriti and a relative of Saddam.

CONSOLIDATION OF POWER

• In 1976 Saddam was appointed a general in the Iraqi armed forces.• Saddam began to take an increasingly

prominent role both internally and externally, and gained powerful circle of support within the party.• He forced the ailing Al-Bakr to resign on

16 July 1979, and formally assumed the presidency.

FEDAYEEN SADDAM• It was a paramilitary organization loyal to the

Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein.• Operated as a paramilitary unit of irregular forces.• The Fedayeen were not an elite military force, often

receiving just basic training and operating without heavy weapons.

POLICIES

• By using oil, he established large scale welfare programs like education and infrastructure. • In order to pacify Shias and Kurds, he gave them

several benefits.• Used force and paramilitaries against domestic

opponents.• Tried to become the leader of the Arab world by

supporting Palestine.• Had tense relations with Syria due to Assad’s fear

of Saddam.

IRAQ-IRAN WAR

BACKGROUND• After the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution,

relations between Iran and Iraq deteriorated. • The Ayatollah sought to export his ideology to other

Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq. • A wave of support for Ayatollah Khomeini swept

Iraq's Shia community.

CAUSES OF WAR• The immediate cause was that Iraqi President

Saddam Hussein was concerned about Iranian efforts to undermine his regime.• He also wanted to increase his influence in the

Persian Gulf by seizing key geographic areas.

• Saddam had spent vast sums on improving his military and he also knew the Iranian military was weakened by the upheaval of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.• Saddam expected a short war.

CONT…• Saddam primary interest in war

may have also stemmed from his desire of the oil-rich Iranian border province of Khuzestan and becoming the regional super power.

• Iraq’s goal of regaining the Shatt al-Arab waterway by abrogating the 1975 treaty with Iran.

• A successful invasion of Iran would enlarge Iraq's petroleum reserves and make Iraq the region’s dominant power.

DISPUTE OVER THE SHAT-AL-ARAB• Narrow waterway formed by

the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, 120 miles long.

• The war officially began in September 22 of 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran, trying to conquer the land of Shatt al-Arab.

• In 1975, a militarily weaker Iraq had by treaty signed over to Iran partial control of the waterway (Shatt al-Arab).

WAR-TIME• “Iran would not cease fighting until Saddam's

regime was toppled.” -Ruhollah Khomeini.• The USA and several Western Europe countries

become active after Iranian attacks on Kuwaiti oil tankers.• Iran’s attacks damaged it’s international

reputation considerably, making it difficult for Khomeini to obtain arms. • In the closing stages of the war, Iran and Iraq

turned their military power on commercial oil tankers in the Gulf to sabotage each others' export profits.

USE OF CW(1983-1988)• Chemical weapons were used extensively against Iran during

the War. Iraq is known to have used the blister agent mustard gas from 1983 and the nerve gas Tabun from 1985. Tabun can kill within minutes.

• In 1988 Iraq turned its chemical weapons on Iraqi Kurds in the north of the country.

WESTERN SUPPORT 1980-1988• The West's relations with Iraq warmed throughout the

war, culminating in military intervention on the Iraqi side. The West feared the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini's radical Islamism and wanted to prevent an Iranian victory.

• Iraq's principal arms source was its long-time ally the USSR.

• But several western nations, including Britain, France, and the US, also supplied weapons or military equipment to Iraq, and the US shared intelligence with Saddam Hussein's regime.

• Iran was supported by Syria and Libya, and received much of its weaponry from North Korea and China, as well as from covert arms transactions from the United States.

• Arab nations declare neutrality but support Iraq.

TRUCE AND DEBT, 1988

• On 18 July 1988, Iran accepted a UN-proposed truce, in the face of continuing - and increasingly Western-backed - Iraqi offensives. A ceasefire came into effect a month later, on 20 August, and UN peacekeepers were sent in.• The death toll, overall, was an estimated 500,000

Iraqi dead and 750,000 Iranian dead. Bodies were still being found as recently as 2001. • Some estimates put the economic cost of the war

to each side at more than $400bn each in damage and loss of oil revenues.

GULF WAR

WHY IRAQ INVADES KUWAIT ?

• Iraq had never accepted its British-drawn borders, which established Kuwait as a separate entity. • In 1990 Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing

Iraqi petroleum through slant-drilling.• Iraq's inability to pay more than US$80 billion

that had been borrowed from Arab nations to finance the Iran–Iraq war.

CONTD..

• Oil Extraction:Kuwait > 350 million barrelsIraq > 280 million barrels

• Oil prices lower by Kuwait.• On 25 July 1990,

Glaspie April, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.

• when Kuwait refused to waive Iraq's war debts, Saddam Hussein invaded.

(ON WAR)

• Iraq forces captured the Kuwait industries and oil wells.• The UN Security Council imposed economic

sanctions and passed a series of resolutions condemning Iraq. • An international coalition was formed, hundreds of

thousands of troops massed in the region, and waive deadline to Iraq for withdrawal.

Iraq had failed to meet a deadline for withdrawal and had set fire to hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells.

DESERT STORM, 1991

• On 17 January 1991, US, British and allied planes launched a massive campaign of missile strikes and aerial bombing.• President Bush Snr declared: "We

will not fail." • Saddam Hussein announced: "The

mother of all battles is under way.'' • Cruise missiles were used for the

first time in warfare, fired from US warships in the Gulf.

IRAQI CEASEFIRE, 1991• By 26 February, Iraq had

announced it was withdrawing its forces from Kuwait, but still refused to accept all the UN resolutions passed against it. • Casualities:

Allied forces > 288Iraqi > 180,000 – 200,000• On 2 March the United

Nations Security Council passed a resolution-687,establishing the terms of the ceasefire.

IRAQI UPRISINGS, 1991• Shia Muslims in Basra, Najaf

and Karbala in southern Iraq took to the streets in protest against the regime. • Kurds in the north persuaded

the local military to switch sides. Suleimaniyeh was the first large city to fall and become autonomous.(oil-rich city of Kirkuk)

OIL-FOR-FOOD, 1991-2002• In 1991 the UN first offered to

allow Iraq to sell a small amount of oil in return for humanitarian supplies. But it was not until the offer was increased to $2bn in 1995 that Saddam Hussein accepted

CONTINUING• Saddam Hussein to

continue using the military helicopters, between 30,000 and 60,000 people were killed. • In the north, 1.5 million

Kurds fled across the mountains into Iran and Turkey.

DESERT FOX, 1998

The aim was to 'degrade' Iraqi weapons by the US, British coalition forces.

SECOND GULF WAR

INSPECTION BARRED

• In 2000, UNSCOM's successor body, UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission-UNMOVIC, was established, but Iraq refused it entry.• With no inspections in Iraq,

uncertainty grew about possible new weapons programs.

OCT 11TH 2002

• President Bush authorize to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein refuses to give up weapons of mass destruction. • Nov 2002, the UN

Security Council passed resolution 1441

IRAQ’S RESPONSE DEC 2002

• Iraq submits a 12,000-page declaration on its chemical, biological and nuclear activities, claiming it has no banned weapons.• 2002 October 15:

The election shows 100% turn out Iraqi National movement.

FEB 2003

• In a UN report, chief UN inspector Hans Blix indicated that progress had been made in Iraq's cooperation. No chemical weapons are found.

FEB 2003

• The U.S. and Britain's intense lobbying efforts among the other UN Security Council members yield only four supporters. No U.N. vote is requested or held.

MARCH 17TH 2003

• All diplomatic efforts cease when President Bush delivers an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave the country within 48 hours or else face an attack.

MARCH 20TH 2003

• The war against Iraq begins 5:30 AM Baghdad time (9:30 PM EST, March 19), when the U.S. launches Operation Iraqi Freedom.• France, Russia and

China criticized the U.S Britain move.

SUBSTANCE OF ANARCHY

• April 9, 2003: The Saddam‘s Statue Falls.• July 22, 2003: The Death

of His Sons.(Qusai and Odai)• Dec. 13, 2003: Saddam

accursed in the Spider Hole in “Operation Red Dawn.”

IRAQ TURMOIL & SADDAM TRIALS (2005-6)

Case charges:-- Massacre and genocide, 140 Shia, Dujail Case 1982.

-- Operation Anfal, 100,000 Kurds killed.

>Death sentence; November 5, 2006.>Executed; December 30, 2006

LTA• Need for power

• Conceptual complexity

• Distrust and group biased

• Confidence

• Task orientation

QUOTES

• “The ideal revolutionary command should effectively direct all planning and implementation. It must not allow the growth of any other rival center of power. There must be one command pooling and directing the subsequent governmental departments, including the armed forces.” • “Politics is when you say you are going to do one

thing while intending to do another. Then you do neither what you said nor what you intended.” C.C

QUOTES

• This "gift“ [IRAQ] was given to the Iraqi people by God. When Iraqi people fall, they rise again.” Ingroup bias• “Our children should be taught to beware of

everything foreign and not to disclose any state or party secrets to foreigners[…] ”distrust

QUOTES

• “I know that there are scores of people plotting to kill me, and this is not difficult to understand. After all, did we not seize power by plotting against our predecessors? However, I am far cleverer than they are. […]to get them before they have the faintest chance of striking at me.” self confidence

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