A few days ago, Big Ivan got such a question: Why did the United States have to put Saddam, then the leader of Iraq, to death during the Gulf War, and even after the end of the Gulf War?
It's good not to ask this question, but a question evokes a lot of memories of Big Ivan, those about the 2003 Iraq War, about Zhang Zhaozhong, and about the ups and downs of the two river basins for so many years - at that time, Big Ivan said this, this question is quite complicated, I can't understand it in three words, and it needs the size of an article.
Today we will talk about the past of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi tyrant, how he became a lackey of the United States, and how he was cooked by the cunning lackeys of the United States during the Gulf War and in the years that followed.
From the perspective of the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the United States, it can be divided into three stages:
Be a friend of Americans
In the first stage, from the beginning of Saddam Hussein to the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, about 1959 to 1979, the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the United States was mostly in secret correspondence.
At that time, the Iraqi government was successively controlled by the Free Officers of Iraq and the Arab Baath Socialist Party, and the Free Officers of Iraq were inclined to take the path of independent development, but out of the need to oppose the infiltration of imperialism in Iraq, they advocated the development of friendly exchanges with the Soviet Union, that is, they fell to the side of the Soviet Union in the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union, which deeply endangered the strategic interests of the United States in the two river valleys.
The Iraqi branch of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, on the other hand, opposed the idea of the Iraqi Free Officers Organization to "build a secular Arab state in one country" and strongly advocated the realization of the union of Arab countries as soon as possible, and did not hesitate to launch a series of coups d'état for this purpose. However, in foreign exchanges, the Baathist regime and the Free Officers of Iraq are relatively close to each other, emphasizing the diplomatic autonomy of Arab countries and pursuing a balanced policy in the struggle for hegemony between the United States and the Soviet Union in order to maximize their interests.
Therefore, both the Iraqi Free Officers' tilt toward the Soviet Union and the balanced foreign policy of the Iraqi branch of the Baath Socialist Party are essentially infringing on the interests of the United States in the Middle East, and in fact assisting in the expansion of the Soviet Union's strategic interests in the Middle East, for which the United States has been looking for its own proxies in the Baath Socialist Party.
Saddam Hussein in exile in Egypt in 1960
Soon, the CIA found Saddam Hussein, who was still a young cadre of the Ba'ath Party at the time, and after a background check, the CIA decided that Saddam was "this person available" and worth investing in. For example, in 1959 and 1960, the Iraqi branch of the Arab Baath Party carried out assassinations against General Qassam, who was the prime minister of Iraq and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Saddam Hussein and other right-wing figures were all involved, and behind them was the US Central Intelligence Agency.
In 1968, the second coup d'état by the Arab Ba'ath Party overthrew the government of General Qassam's deputy, General Arif, and became the perfect opportunity for Saddam to leap onto the Iraqi political scene, led by Ahmad Hassan al-Becker, a member of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, a member of the Iraqi officer corps, and Saddam's uncle. Saddam Hussein also soared through the coup d'état, rising to the top and was soon appointed vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council.
In 1974, Saddam Hussein visited India as vice president
As Becker's health deteriorated, Saddam's status grew, and he became almost the No. 2 man in Iraq, in charge of the economy. At this time, the conditions for a coup d'état were basically ripe - at the beginning of 1979, Saddam Hussein took advantage of Becker's serious illness and inability to take care of things, decisively launched a coup d'état, forced Bakr to abdicate, and then took over as general secretary of the Iraqi branch of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, chairman of the Revolutionary Command Committee, and commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces.
It is difficult to say whether there is the support of the CIA behind all this, but it is a definite fact that Saddam Hussein has a very good relationship with the CIA and maintains long-term contacts, and it is even rumored that after the successful coup d'état, Saddam Hussein immediately hosted a banquet for the leaders of the CIA's regional branch in Iraq, and made various wishes to the United States, saying that he would become the best friend of the United States in the Middle East.
The outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war
Of course, whether or not to practice fake tricks depends on whether Saddam Hussein is America's best friend, and we have to see the truth in actual action -- Saddam Hussein soon ushered in such an opportunity.
In February 1979, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, led by Shia cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, next door to Iraq, triumphed, established a Shia-led rule in Iran. Compared with the Secularized Arab Baath Socialist Party, the Islamic Revolution in Iran undoubtedly has a strong divine color, and Khomeini did not hesitate to take the "export of the Islamic Revolution" as the foundation of Iran's statehood, calling on the vast number of Muslims in the Islamic world to overthrow the secular regime and establish a ruling order in accordance with Sharia law.
This not only threatens the interests of the Arab secular countries under the control of the Arab Baath Socialist Party, but also threatens the interests of the Sunni Arab countries that are incompatible with the Shiites in Iran, and because more than 60 percent of the population in Iraq are Shiites, the Sunnis represented by Saddam Hussein are on the contrary a minority, and they are even more vigilant against the Shiite Islamic revolution instigated by Iran, and this has become a foreshadowing of the contradictions between Iraq and Iran led by Saddam.
At the same time, there are many other contradictions between Iraq and Iran. For example, on the ethnic issue between the two countries, Iran has always interfered in the affairs of the Kurds in northern Iraq, supported Kurdish separatist organizations to make trouble in Iraq, and tried to check and balance the Iraqi government. Iraq has long been dissatisfied with this, the border line between the two countries has not been determined for a long time, contradictions and conflicts have continued, and Iraq has a deep hatred for Iran's behavior because it involves Iraq's sensitive issue of access to the sea.
Coincidentally, after the Islamic Revolution, Iran has put on an attitude of "oil and salt do not enter" to the outside world, and Khomeini openly declared in foreign policy, "I don't want the United States, I don't want the Soviet Union, I will be my own pole, and the United States and the Soviet Union will give me a side"!
You must know that the Pahlavi dynasty before Iran was a hardcore follower of the United States, and it was even more difficult for the United States to tolerate the instant zeroing of its strategic influence in Iran, and the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the Soviet Union's strategic offensive in the Middle East irritated the sensitive nerves of the United States. To this end, the United States urgently needs a strongman to curb Iran's influence, so who better to do so than Saddam?
In the early morning of September 22, 1980, the Iraqi army under the leadership of Saddam Hussein launched a surprise attack on Iran, and the Iran-Iraq war broke out.
Before the 1980 invasion of Iran, Saddam Hussein visited Iraqi soldiers
Because Saddam Hussein's banner was to "hang the people" for the entire Arab world and keep these Iranian Shiite clergy east of the two river basins, he was unanimously supported by the Arab countries, whether it was the secular Arab Baath Socialist regime or the clerical Saudi clerical clique.
The United States also announced its support for Iraq, and even transported chemical weapons precursors to Iraq when the Iraqi army was unfavorable for the war, acquiescing in the Iraqi army's use of chemical weapons to turn the tide of the war.
Funnily enough, the Soviet Union was also supporting Iraq. After all, Iran's foreign policy of "not the United States, not the Soviet Union" violated the interests of the Soviet Union, but Israel was secretly supporting Iran's theocratic government - Israel did not want to see the Arab society raise a new military strongman to threaten its strategic presence in the Middle East, which reflected the extent of chaos and evil in the Middle East.
In 1980, Saddam Hussein carried a shovel on his shoulders in the Iran-Iraq war
But in any case, although Saddam Hussein fought the nine-year-long Iran-Iraq war in an extremely ugly way, he also gave the United States a bad breath and successfully blocked the forces of the Islamic Revolution in Iran to the east of the two river basins. At this time, Saddam Hussein proved with his actions that he was the "best friend" of the United States in the Middle East, and the United States also reciprocated the favor by giving the green light to the many perverse acts of the Saddam regime.
In 2003, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who strongly advocated war against Iraq, visited Iraq twice in December 1983 and March 1984, shook hands cordially with Saddam, and conveyed to Saddam Hussein the strategic intention of the White House to improve relations with Iraq and acquiesce in Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran.
Therefore, the first ten years of Saddam's rule can be considered the second stage of relations between Saddam Hussein and the United States.
The end of Saddam
However, the honeymoon period between Saddam Hussein and the United States has basically come to an end here, and after the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq has accumulated a lot of debts, so it hopes that Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and other countries will forgive some of Iraq's foreign debts.
Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War
After all, in Saddam's view, Iraq has fought for your Sunni prince for so many years, and you should also be a little grateful, and it is appropriate to forgive some debts, but I did not expect to be rejected by the Sunni clerical state, and Saddam then hoped to lease Kuwait's access to the sea to increase Iraq's oil exports, but Kuwait also refused.
The harsh reality forced Saddam Hussein to take a desperate decision to invade and occupy Kuwait, on the one hand to achieve regional integration under the banner of so-called "Arab nationalism," and on the other hand, he intended to directly get rid of his foreign debts.
On August 2, 1990, the Iraqi Republican Guard suddenly crossed the border between Iraq and Kuwait and launched a full-scale invasion of Kuwait.
Before invading Kuwait, Saddam had tested the attitude of the United States and misjudged the attitude of the United States, which he believed would acquiesce in the occupation of Kuwait in the same way that he had acquiesced in the use of chemical weapons against Iran. The worst outcome is that the Iraqi army will rely on its manpower superiority to confront the US troops in the Middle East for a long time, relying on time to drag down the US army and force the United States to admit the established facts.
However, what I never expected was that the United States turned its face, and although Saddam completely misjudged the situation, it was not surprising that the United States turned its face:
On the one hand, for the United States, since the momentum of Iran's export of revolution to the outside world has been temporarily contained, the strategic role of Iraq has ended there, and it is no longer so important to the United States. Iraq's policy of aggression and expansion may lead to the emergence of a regional power in the Middle East, which will in turn infringe upon US interests in the Middle East.
On the other hand, we all know that the core of US policy in the Middle East is the two countries of Israel and Saudi Arabia. The former holds the guns in the Middle East, the latter holds the money bags in the Middle East, and at the same time is the controller of Islamic clerical power, and Iraq's expansionist policy has made Saudi Arabia feel a huge crisis, and it has also jeopardized the US petrodollar strategy, and the United States cannot sit idly by.
Third, the Soviet Union in 1990 was already showing strategic decline, the regime was crumbling, and the United States had basically expected that the post-Cold War era itself would become the dominant player in the international order. Under such circumstances, it is also necessary for the United States to set an example for the new international order it has established.
At this time, Iraq has unfortunately become the target of the United States, and it is absolutely impossible for the United States to let go of the opportunity to "invade other countries and bully the small with the big ones." What a good opportunity this is to show the strength of the United States itself and also to demonstrate the principle and vision of shaping a new international order with the United States as the mainstay, and the United States absolutely cannot let it go!
In a Gulf War, the Iraqi army was beaten to the ground by the US-led multinational forces, and Saddam's Arab nationalism and vision of building a large Arab state became a complete clown, and relations with the United States naturally broke down.
Of course, the Bush administration in 1990 was quite strategic, and he clearly realized that Iraq still has a relatively large number of Shiites, and Sunnis are a minority religious sect, and once Saddam's rule is disorderly, then Iraq will inevitably fall into a situation in which Shiite sects dominate, which will only cheapen Iran, which is also a Shiite country next door.
Therefore, the Bush administration only drove the Iraqi army out of Kuwait and subsequently imposed long-term sanctions on Saddam, but did not think about directly overthrowing Saddam's regime. But in any case, at this time, the relationship between the United States and Iraq, and between the United States and Saddam Hussein, has completely broken down, and Saddam, the "best friend of the United States," has become a thing of the past. Since then, Iraq's state has been in turmoil and decline, and Saddam's rule is no longer stable.
It wasn't until after the 911 incident in 2001 that it was remembered by the United States. The difference is that the US president at this time has been replaced by a simple-minded Bush Jr., who has been an intelligence agent and is a scheming veteran, Bush Jr. has a cowboy idea in the western United States, and all he wants is to kill Saddam, the "evil leader," and then hoe the strong and help the weak in the Middle East, and build a "democratic model house" based on Iraq.
As a result, everything is expected - after the overthrow of Saddam, the Shiites quickly became dominant in Iraq, and they were voted in full compliance with the principles of American-style representative democracy, and Iranian forces quickly entered Iraq, directly making Iraq's Shiite militia units a member of the "arc of resistance" under the leadership of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States did not expect at all.
However, there was nothing to do with Saddam Hussein at this time, and Saddam Hussein was captured by the United States after the end of the Iraq war and sent to the gallows, ending his life as an Iraqi tyrant. I just don't know if Colonel Saddam Hussein, many years later, facing the firing squad, will recall that afternoon when he first met the CIA officials in Iraq and vowed to the Americans to be America's "best friend" in the Middle East.
Therefore, whether Saddam Hussein was a friend of the Americans, and why he later became a prisoner of the United States, in the final analysis, there is only one sentence -- for the national interests of the United States. When it was in the national interests of the United States, such as rebuilding the strategic influence of the United States in Iraq and resisting Iran's infiltration into the two river basins, Saddam Hussein became a friend of the Americans; And when Saddam Hussein tried to establish a regional power in the two river basins and threatened the strategic presence of the United States in the Middle East, then he became an enemy of the United States.
This is what Morgenthau's realism said - the core of international politics is power and interests, whether Saddam Hussein was a friend of the United States or an enemy of the United States, and why he was finally sent to the gallows by the United States, it was only for the interests of the United States.