80 years ago, on April 28, 1937, Saddam Hussein was born - Iraqi statesman and politician, President of Iraq (1979-2003). Hussein formally became president in 1979, although he had already been the de facto leader of Iraq for several years before. Hussein went a long way: from an effective leader who unified the country and built abundant "oil socialism", a friend of the West in the fight against Islamic Iran, to a "bloody tyrant" and the personification of evil for the "world community."
After the death of Hussein and up to the present time, when Iraq plunged into poverty and bloody chaos, Iraqis are increasingly recalling that in the days of Saddam life for ordinary people was much better. Saddam among ordinary Iraqis gradually became the embodiment of the dream of a firm hand that can stop the bloody chaos. Apparently, it was not for nothing that Hussein himself said: “I don't care what they say about me now. I am concerned about what they will say about me four or five hundred centuries after my death."
Under Hussein, Iraq became one of the most developed Arab states. However, the long bloody war with Iran (1980-1988), which brought huge human losses, became one of the largest conflicts that occurred after the end of World War II, leading to a decline in the economy and a sharp decline in living standards and a clash with the West caused by the invasion of Kuwait (1990) led to the socio-economic and military degradation of Iraq. The invasion of Kuwait led to the start of an international operation to liberate it, a little over a month long, known as the Gulf War, in which Iraqi forces were defeated. The country suffered heavy economic and human losses. Due to the defeat of Iraq in the war in 1991, an armed uprising of Shiites and Kurds took place, brutally suppressed by the government.as a result, a large number of people died. Iraq has lost control of several Kurdish regions. Western countries have established a no-fly zone over most of the airspace. And economic sanctions practically paralyzed the Iraqi economy, and led to a high mortality rate from a lack of food and medicine. The weakest members of Iraqi society, the children, were particularly affected.
In 2003, the United States and its allies, using as a pretext the terrorist act of September 11, 2001, invaded Iraq and overthrew the Hussein regime. The basis for the intervention was the accusations of the Iraqi leader of supporting international terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction, which had no factual justification. As it turned out later, Baghdad had not carried out any work in this direction for a long time. Hussein himself was captured by American troops and executed on December 30, 2006.
However, the intervention and the fall of Hussein's regime did not bring peace to Iraqi soil. Many Iraqis remember the years of "oil socialism" as the best in the country's history. They also remember order and security in the country. Since 2003, Iraq has experienced one crisis after another - problems in the economy and social sphere, total corruption, ethnic and religious conflicts, terrorist war. Terrorist attacks have become so frequent that they are no longer paid special attention to. Currently, Iraq has virtually ceased to exist as a sovereign state. There are several state entities - Kurdistan, Shiite and Sunni zones, the territory of the Caliphate. Iraqi Kurdistan is de facto independent and is following the path of creating its own state. The territory of the Caliphate is also independent. There is a real war with the CaliphateIraqi government forces, with the support of the international coalition and Iran, are trying to recapture the country's second largest city, Mosul, from the jihadists. Baghdad, which is now dominated by the Shiite military-political elite, in recent years has only been supported by Iran's assistance. The enormous wealth of the country is being robbed by external forces (the West), local corrupt officials who permeate the entire bureaucratic and military apparatus, various bandit formations, the Caliphate. The people live in complete poverty, lack of rights and have no bright prospects. The country's socio-economic and cultural infrastructure is in ruins. Historical values (often the heritage of all mankind) were looted and taken away. The formerly large Christian community of Iraq, which under Hussein was quite prosperous and safe, like other small ethno-confessional groups,defeated and virtually completely driven out of the country.
Thus, the monk Joseph, from one of the oldest in the world and the oldest in the Middle East monastery of St. Matthew (founded in the 4th century), in the beginning of 2017, that in the best years thousands of people lived in this monastery and its surroundings. … Today only a few monks remain there. According to him, “until 2003, there were more than one and a half million Christians living in Iraq, now there are a little more than two hundred thousand. Just think: it's over 75 percent and they will never come back. " And further: “The deepest crisis began in 2014, when IS gangs entered Mosul. Then all the Christians fled from the city … Then panic reigned among them: people saw and heard what the militants are doing to Christians, how they kill, cut people's heads, rape women, all these monstrous things. … Many of them now live in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey,thousands of families have left for Europe, Australia, Canada, the United States in search of a new, different life."
According to the monk, “IS was created in order to destroy this world, civilization, history, to wipe out everyone who thinks differently from the face of the earth. And we see how they succeeded in Iraq and Syria. This can only be explained by some kind of international conspiracy, a desire to cleanse the Middle East of Christians in principle. This is happening in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia … Western governments are interested in simply observing events in the region from the outside. Where did the militants come from? Who supported them, who gave them weapons and money? Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey. It's funny to say that this happened without the knowledge of such large states as the United States."
According to Joseph, “Saddam Hussein would have finished this mess in a couple of weeks. He could have stopped these murders, this destruction, the chaos that now reigns everywhere. And there are many similar opinions, after people have gone through a long period of war, chaos, violence, sliding towards the wildest archaic. At the same time, people have an understanding that they have no bright future. Rebuilding the country is no longer possible. This requires the good will of the entire world community, the destruction of all bandits and thieves, huge funds and five years of hard, shock creative work.
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Thus, the overthrow of the dictatorial regime of Hussein (quite a traditional power for the region) and the victory of "democracy" brought on by American bayonets did not bring Iraq and the common people anything good. In fact, there is no Iraq as a sovereign and integral state, and apparently it will no longer be. There is a war-torn territory, divided by large ethno-confessional zones (Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis), which is being plundered and used by all and sundry. Kurdistan is entering the final stage of the creation of its state. The Caliphate created its own statehood in Iraq. The most difficult and bloody war continues, during which entire cities are being wiped out from the face of the planet (like Mosul). Regional players - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Israel, Iran, are realizing their tasks on the territory of Iraq, and are not interested in rebuilding a strong Iraqi state.
Background
Iraq has a rich history. The fertile region of Mesopotamia, in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, was the birthplace of several ancient civilizations such as Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia and Assyria. The first city-states on the lands of Mesopotamia appeared in the IV millennium BC. e, however, proto-state formations appeared much earlier. For a long time, the territory of modern Iraq was part of the Persian Empire and the Seleucid state. In 636, Mesopotamia was conquered by the Arabs, who brought Islam with them. In 762, Baghdad becomes the center of the Arab Caliphate.
In 1258, the territory of present-day Iraq was captured by the Mongols, led by Hulagu Khan. The Mongols took over and sacked Baghdad and laid waste to Mesopotamia. The Mongolian Hulaguid dynasty ruled the region until the middle of the XIV century. She was replaced by the Jalairid dynasty. Then the Turkic dynasties ruled. In 1534, as a result of the Turkish-Persian war, the territory of present-day Iraq was annexed to the Ottoman Empire, whose rule lasted for almost 400 years.
The First World War led to the defeat and collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In 1917, the British occupied Baghdad and Kirkuk, and by 1918 they controlled almost all of Iraq. As a state, Iraq was created in 1920 by separating three vilayets of the Ottoman Empire into it: Basra, Mosul and Baghdad. In April 1920, the League of Nations at a conference in San Remo issued a mandate to govern Iraq to England. In 1921, Iraq was proclaimed a kingdom led by Emir Faisal (son of the Sheriff of Mecca Hussein) of the Hashemite dynasty. A constitutional monarchy was established with a bicameral parliament. The real power remained with the British. For the West, control over the country with huge oil reserves, and because of its geographic location, was of strategic importance. As early as 1925, the Anglo-French-American consortium Turkish Petroleum, which was renamed Iraq Petroleum four years later, received a concession to develop Iraq's oil wealth.
During World War II, after England's defeats in Europe and North Africa, Iraqi Prime Minister Rashid Ali al-Gailani, supported by the military and nationalists, carried out a military coup against Great Britain. The national defense government tried to find support from Germany. However, in Berlin at this time, all attention was focused on the USSR. Therefore, in May 1941, the British conducted the Iraqi operation and occupied the most important strategic points in Iraq. Britain regained control of Iraq. In 1952, Iraq's share of the rapidly growing revenues from Iraq Petroleum's oil production increased to 50%, but it was still far from full sovereignty.
Hussein's youth. Way of struggle
Saddam Hussein Abdel Majid al-Tikriti was born on April 28, 1937 in the village of al-Auja in the district of the Iraqi city of Tikrit to a poor family of Sunni peasants. His mother named the newborn "Saddam" - in one of the meanings in Arabic it is "the one who resists" (very symbolic, opposition became the basis of his life). Saddam did not know his father: he was raised by his mother Subha (Sabha) and stepfather Ibrahim al-Hasan, and then by his maternal uncle, Heyrallah Tulfah. The family suffered from extreme poverty, and Saddam grew up in an atmosphere of poverty and constant hunger. Saddam's paternal uncle, Ibrahim, according to custom, took his mother as his wife, but he did not love Hussein.
In 1947, Saddam, who passionately dreamed of studying, fled to Tikrit to go to school there. Here he was raised by his uncle Heyrallah Tulfah - a devout Sunni Muslim, nationalist, army officer, veteran of the Anglo-Iraqi War. His uncle shaped his character and explained to the young Saddam how important it is to keep relatives. Since then, Hussein has invariably surrounded himself with relatives and countrymen, who generally provided him with the necessary protection and support.
Under the influence of Heyrallah, Saddam was imbued with the ideas of pan-Arab nationalism and in 1956 joined the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (Baath). The party's ideology was a mixture of Arab nationalism, socialism and the struggle against Western imperialism. Hussein got ahead quickly thanks to his personal courage. He became famous for the failed assassination attempt on the Prime Minister of Iraq, General Abdel Kerim Qasem in 1959 (he seized power in 1958). Then Hussein was forced to flee to Egypt, and his flight turned into a beautiful legend.
In 1963, after the Baathist coup, he returned to his homeland, but two years later he was imprisoned by the government of Iraq's new leader, Abdel Salam Arif. In 1967 he escaped and became one of the leaders of the 1968 revolution. General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr came to power then, to whose daughter Saddam was married. Al-Bakr and Hussein became close associates and the dominant force in the Baath Party. Finding himself the second person in the Baathist government of General Hassan al-Bakr, Saddam steadily increased his influence, creating a powerful system of special services and promoting representatives of the Tikrit clan to leading positions.
Nationalization. Prosperity
In the mid-1970s. the new Iraqi leadership is taking a number of steps that have caused obvious discontent in the West. 1972 - signs a 15-year cooperation agreement with the Soviet Union. In 1973, relying on the support of Moscow, Baghdad decided to nationalize Iraq Petroleum, which sold cheap oil to the West. The nationalization of this company was as important to Iraq as the nationalization of the Suez Canal was to the Egyptian people.
Due to the rise in oil prices after the 1973 energy crisis, Iraq, which nationalized the oil industry, literally bathed in money. Baghdad was considered a wealthy state before the imposition of sanctions in the 1990s. The country had the richest oil reserves - 2-3 place in the world. Moreover, the oil in Iraq so called. light, affordable, "black gold" literally oozes out of the ground. A significant increase in revenues from the sale of "black gold" allowed the Iraqi government to increase investments both in the oil industry itself and in the social sphere - education and healthcare. The Iraqi government introduced universal free education and health care, supported farmers, modernized the army, providing the military with a high standard of living. Excellent roads were built throughout the country, power lines were installed. The economy and industry developed at an accelerated pace. The standard of living in Iraq has become one of the highest in the entire Arab world. Saddam was even awarded a special UNESCO prize on this occasion in 1982. By 1979, when Saddam Hussein became president, oil accounted for 95% of the country's foreign exchange earnings.
The uprising of the Kurds. Universal friend
March 10, 1970 an agreement was signed with the Kurds, which includes provisions on the rights of the Kurdish people to autonomy within Iraq. It was planned that the law on autonomy would be developed within four years by mutual agreement. However, on March 11, 1974, Baghdad unilaterally promulgated a law that did not suit the Kurds. Most of all, the Kurds were outraged by the establishment of borders, as a result of which half of Iraqi Kurdistan did not enter the autonomy, including the oil-bearing Kirkuk (the main oil region of Iraq). Meanwhile, in Kirkuk itself, the government has been carrying out active Arabization for several years, expelling the Kurds and settling the Arabs in their place.
The Kurds resisted, and with the support of Iran and the United States (Iran at that time was a pro-American country), they raised a revolt that lasted a year. The uprising was defeated, as Baghdad and Tehran were able to agree. On March 6, 1975, the Algiers Agreement was concluded. In exchange for border concessions from Iraq, it provided for Iran to end its support for the uprising. As a result, the Kurdish uprising was suppressed. During this period, Iranian-Iraqi relations also improved. In the fall of 1978, Baghdad expelled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the main enemy of the Iranian Shah, who was then in exile for 15 years. From that moment on, Hussein became a personal enemy of Khomeini, which could not but affect the relations between the two countries after the Ayatollah came to power in Iran in 1979.
Thus, Hussein maintained good relations with the USSR and the United States at once, and made peace with Iran. Baghdad has a special relationship with France. In September 1975, Saddam visited a Western country for the first and last time, arriving in Paris and meeting with Prime Minister Jacques Chirac. France supplied Iraq with weapons and helped develop the nuclear program.
Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein strengthened his personal power regime, promoting his relatives, fellow countrymen and allies to key roles in government and business. In 1978, joining the ranks of opposition parties was punishable by death. And in 1979 Saddam Hussein forced General Bakr to resign (officially due to health conditions) and became the head of state. Within days of coming to power, he executed dozens of his rivals.
This policy was partly related to the situation in neighboring Iran. A revolution took place there in 1979: Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi lost power, the monarchy was abolished. The disgraced Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran and took power into his own hands. In March, a referendum was held on a new political structure, and on April 1, 1979, Iran was declared the first Islamic republic. The Islamic revolution in Iran became one of the key events of the 20th century and was of great historical importance for the whole world. The establishment of lasting Islamic power in hydrocarbon-rich Iran challenged the informal leadership of Sunni Saudi Arabia in the Muslim world, eliminated Western (US) power in Iran, and challenged Iraq, which also sought regional hegemony. Tehran has intensified its attacks on the Baathist regime in Iraq with the help of its Shiite opponents. It was not difficult to inspire the Iraqi Shiites, long oppressed by the Sunni elite, to fight. They revolted, and in 1980 they organized an attempt on the life of Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
Under these conditions, Hussein raised the old question of the Iraqi-Iranian border along the river. Shatt al-Arab (the eastern coast was rich in oil deposits and had two fairly large ports, Abadan and Khorramshahr) and the status of the oil-rich Iranian Khuzestan (called Arabistan in Iraq). Apparently, Saddam also hoped that a victory in the war against Iran would help him suppress the Shiite movement in the country and deal with the Kurdish rebels. He also hoped for Western support and received it. On September 22, 1980, Iraq began its invasion of the neighboring country.
An interesting fact is that, despite the fact that the aggressor was Iraq, and the victim of the aggression was Iran, no one raised the issue that it is bad to be an aggressor and that it is necessary to somehow help the victim of aggression. On the contrary, throughout the war, Hussein's regime enjoyed broad political and military support from the West and the United States (which is not surprising, given Washington's hatred of the Islamic Republic). This war shows very well all the hypocrisy of world politics. The West flirted with Hussein, offering him the role of leader of the Arab countries, Baghdad succumbed to this trick, which ultimately predetermined the fall of Saddam's regime. During this period, Hussein was a "partner" for the United States. By order of President Reagan, issued after a joint discussion of the conflict with Secretary of State Schultz and Defense Secretary Weinberger, American weapons began to be supplied to Iraq. Besides,The CIA regularly transmitted to Baghdad data on the deployment of Iranian troops received by American AWACS aircraft. Iraq was also actively supported by France, Germany, Italy. At the same time, Iraq continued to remain an ally of the USSR and receive weapons from it. In addition, Iraq also armed the "third world" - Yugoslavia, Brazil, South Africa. China also sold arms to both sides of the conflict. Only North Korea, Libya and Syria supplied Iran with weapons (the Syrians and Libyans were in conflict with the Saddam regime). Only North Korea, Libya and Syria supplied Iran with weapons (the Syrians and Libyans were in conflict with the Saddam regime). Only North Korea, Libya and Syria supplied Iran with weapons (the Syrians and Libyans were in conflict with the Saddam regime).
Western support did not stop even after UN experts confirmed in 1986 that Iraq, in violation of the Geneva Convention, used chemical weapons against Iran. Earlier, in 1981, when Israeli aircraft bombed the French-made Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq, the United States supported a UN resolution condemning Israel's actions. In 1982, the United States removed Iraq from the list of countries supporting terrorism. Two years later, bilateral diplomatic relations were restored, which had been broken off during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Cooling began only after the Iran-Contra (Irangate) scandal, which revealed that Washington was secretly selling weapons to Tehran, hoping to free the hostages in Lebanon. In particular,with the help of the Israelis, in the fall of 1985, the United States delivered Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. Also, during the war, Israel supplied weapons and spare parts for fighters and tanks to Iran. Thus, the West played a good combination, playing off Iraq and Iran, receiving political and economic benefits from this brutal massacre.
In the final months of the war, Iraq and Iran launched a so-called "tanker war" and launched attacks against commercial oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, seeking to undermine each other's export earnings. American, British and French warships were sent to the bay. Several Kuwaiti tankers, which were threatened with attack from Iran, were provided with an American flag and American military escort. In parallel, the US military destroyed several Iranian oil platforms and, "accidentally," according to Washington, shot down an Iranian plane with 290 civilian passengers on board.
In August 1988, an Iranian-Iraqi ceasefire agreement was concluded. UN peacekeepers were sent to the combat area. As a result, the war ended without a convincing victory for one of the parties. But for internal propaganda, first Saddam and then Khomeini's entourage took turns declaring their triumph. By the end of the war, the Iranian-Iraqi border had not undergone significant changes, but both sides suffered huge human and economic losses. The exact losses of the parties are unknown. Hundreds of thousands of people died. The border strip in Iran was badly damaged. The infrastructure of the oil industry was severely damaged. Both regional powers suffered heavy economic losses (hundreds of billions of dollars), and the years that could have been used for creation were wasted. The war led to the emergence of significant indebtedness in Iraq to a number of Arab countries. In particular, Iraq's debt to Kuwait exceeded $ 14 billion.
From a military point of view, both sides showed a low level of combat training, both at the level of command and rank and file. The war was fought with extreme ferocity, military equipment, and quite modern, was used very actively. Iraq had an advantage in weapons and equipment, using the support of both the West and the USSR and the countries of the social bloc. Soviet technology formed the basis of the Iraqi armed forces, and it was its use that the Iraqi army owes its main successes, especially at the beginning of the war. Before the revolution, Iran mainly cooperated in the military sphere with the United States, and all military-technical ties were cut off. Therefore, the Iranian armed forces experienced problems with the replenishment of weapons, equipment, materiel, maintenance, etc. From the second half of the war, Iran also fought to a large extent on captured Soviet equipment and its Chinese and North Korean clones. Iran was saved by the will of the Islamic regime: the government was able to mobilize the people for the "holy war." And the Iraqi command could not use the first successes, failing the blitzkrieg.
During the war, Saddam Hussein also carried out an operation to "resolve" the Kurdish issue, called "Anfal", during which tens of thousands of Kurds were taken out in an unknown direction and, apparently, executed. Out of 5 thousand Kurdish villages, 4 thousand were completely destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people were placed in special camps, and about 1 million people became refugees. A number of Kurdish villages and the city of Halabja were bombarded with chemical bombs (5,000 people died in Halabja alone). At the same time, the poor Arab population from the southern regions of the country purposefully moved to the territory of Iraqi Kurdistan, especially to the city of Kirkuk, in order to change the ethnic composition of the region. Many Kurdish areas were completely devastated, the villages and towns located in them were destroyed, and the population was resettled to "model villages"reminiscent of concentration camps. It is worth noting that Western countries, including the United States, at that time ignored Hussein's actions against the Kurdish population, since the issue of fighting Iran was more important for them than the Kurdish problem. The Kurds were "remembered" only when Hussein turned from a "partner" to the West into a "bloody tyrant."
Author: Samsonov Alexander