The Deluded World of Saddam Hussein

Many of Saddam's dream-inspired ideas were ludicrous, but none of his lackeys had the guts to say so. They all remembered what happened in 1982, when Saddam asked his aides for candid advice about his war with Iran, which wasn't going well. Riyadh Ibrahim, the minister of health, suggested that Saddam temporarily step down and resume his presidency when the war ended. The next day, pieces of Ibrahim's chopped-up body were delivered to his wife.

Clearly, when you surround yourself with lackeys who know if they step out of line they'll be served up as a bowl of chili, you're not going to get the advice you need.

And, there's more: "This powerfully concentrated the attention of the other ministers," recalled a former Saddam aide, showing an impressive flair for understatement.

One way Saddam stayed in power was by filling his government with people who were too inept to overthrow him. A captured general summed up the qualifications of the head of the Special Republican Guard in a sentence that Heller could have written: "First, he was not intelligent enough to represent a threat to the regime, and second, he was not brave enough to participate in anybody else's plots."

As I read through this article, I came to realize that Saddam was just as stupid and deluded as many supposed smart people in this country. Way back before the 1991 Gulf War, when Democrats and the media were all convinced that the United States was headed toward a humiliating defeat at the hands of the "battle hardened Iraqi army." Iraq's army had been toughened and tested in a long war against Iran and our pudgy little boys had only played soldier in training. Our equipment was designed for use in Europe and would break down in the Iraqi dessert. Remember that crap?

Well read this: Shortly before the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Saddam was "very confident" that the Americans would never dare attack Iraq, and if they did, that they would be defeated by his "superior" forces.

Needless to say, his generals were afraid to tell him otherwise. They did raise their concerns with the minister of defense, but he ignored them, hoping to "keep Saddam's favor."

Of course, Saddam was wrong: The United States did invade and easily defeated the pathetic Iraqi army. But Saddam didn't let such unpleasant facts alter his worldview. On March 30, a week before the Americans took Baghdad, Saddam instructed his underlings to tell the French and Russian governments to stop trying to broker a cease-fire because "Iraq is now winning."

I'm just guessing, but I can't help but think that Saddam was getting his intelligence from the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and Ted Kennedy.