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Saddam Hussein
was key in the 1968 Iraqi coup and later grabbed power from his
frail uncle, the ruler, to become president of Iraq in 1979. He
promoted himself to despotic dictator and ruled ruthlessly for
decades using all means of terror, murder, indoctrination, and
suppression of education. |
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It took centuries to build the
United States. The United States possessed substantive leadership,
virtually unlimited natural resources, and hard-driven people. Iraq is not a
contemporary version of the United States in 1776. |
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Saddam
Hussein, used repressive security forces
to cement his firm authority over all
aspects of Iraqi government and the Iraqi
people. High oil prices caused Iraq's
economy to grow at a relatively rapid pace
during the last decades of the 20th century. While president,
Saddam developed
an authoritarian regime rarely
seen throughout history. He ruled ruthlessly, rewarded supporters
with any hedonistic pleasures, and tortured and murdered all who
dared oppose him. |
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Saddam Hussein held
power through the 1980s until 2003. He used mass
murder, purged the elite and educated through torture, murder, and public execution. Saddam Hussein devastated
Iraq, lowered its general living standards, and
turned it into a rogue predator. Saddam's
policies ignored all human rights and humane and
civilized guidelines in order for him to hold power and control 25 million
Iraqis. His political organization, the Ba'ath Party, asserted its
minority-position upon the
Iraqi majority. Hussein's party firmly repressed
all movements that it deemed threatening.
It eliminated Iraqi people from ethnic or religious groups
that sought autonomy. |
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The Iraqi people's work ethic,
political understanding, social consciousness, and ability to organize
and work together for productive purposes was destroyed by Saddam Hussein and his despotic regime. It was not
simply damaged or eroded. Saddam Hussein destroyed the Iraqi
people's abilities to govern themselves and their desire to accomplish and
develop Iraq into a world class nation. |
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Media pundits
claim that the Iraq war is dragging on and on. It is useful to
consider what projects the people who disparage the US-led
coalition's progress in Iraq have accomplished in their own work
over recent years. Even more enlightening would be to survey what --
if anything -- most people accomplish in their entire careers. |
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No one who has been involved
in large-scale projects and understands the concept of successful
completion can logically claim Iraq should be operating on its own
by now.
Iraq cannot be expected to motivate millions of nearly illiterate,
dysfunctional people and create a productive nation in 2-1/2 years. Twenty-five
million Iraqis must be educated, organized, and develop a work ethic.
This could not be accomplished even in an American business today. It
remains to be accomplished in Germany 15 years after the fall of the
Berlin Wall. It has yet to be accomplished in most African nations.
It has yet to be accomplished in many nations of Central and South
America. It has yet to be accomplished in many ex-Soviet republics
that were liberated more than a decade ago. |
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