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Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge
Said K. Aburish presents an authoritative and timely book that explains the man the Western world fears the most. Drawing on the author's knowledge of and contacts with the Arab world, especially in Iraq, Said Aburish gives us an accurate, compelling biography and psychological profile of the man the western world fears most. The author worked with Saddam Hussein in the 1970s and is therefore able to add dimension and personal experience to our understanding of this remarkable dictator. The book includes an account of Saddam's series of personal for recognition after being orphaned and brought up by a destitute uncle; for control of his country; for leadership in the Arab world; for mastery in the technology of destruction.
This is the frightening story of how the man who, with the encouragement of Western governments, made his country the most advanced in the Arab world in the 1970s, and through personal ambition led it to disaster at the end of the 1980s, and now fights for its survival. Aburish's personal experience and exclusive inside sources make this an important, unique and necessary look at one of the most terrifying leaders in the world today.
This is the frightening story of how the man who, with the encouragement of Western governments, made his country the most advanced in the Arab world in the 1970s, and through personal ambition led it to disaster at the end of the 1980s, and now fights for its survival. Aburish's personal experience and exclusive inside sources make this an important, unique and necessary look at one of the most terrifying leaders in the world today.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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319 people want to read
About the author
Saïd K. Aburish
19 books19 followersPalestinian journalist and writer.
Saïd K. Aburish was born in the biblical village of Bethany near Jerusalem in 1935. One of his grandfathers was a Muslim judge of the Islamic High Court and a lecturer at the Arab college; the other was a village headman.
Aburish attended school in Jerusalem and Beirut, and university in the United States. He returned to Beirut as a reporter for Radio Free Europe and the London Daily Mail. He consulted for two Arab governments and written several books.
Saïd K. Aburish was born in the biblical village of Bethany near Jerusalem in 1935. One of his grandfathers was a Muslim judge of the Islamic High Court and a lecturer at the Arab college; the other was a village headman.
Aburish attended school in Jerusalem and Beirut, and university in the United States. He returned to Beirut as a reporter for Radio Free Europe and the London Daily Mail. He consulted for two Arab governments and written several books.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 4, 2016
Really excellent bio. The author had a lot of close contacts with Iraqi figures and used them to provide deep insights and details into the history and motivations of Saddam. Though he gradually became more and more brutal and autocratic, his rule wasn't as one dimensional as one is led to be believed. Like Stalin, he dragged Iraq into the first world, focused on education and literacy and improved the status of women and peasants. Nationalizing Iraq's oil industry was pretty unironically good and his playing of his western and Soviet patrons against each other showed a mastery that's pretty rare among leaders. One wonders how Iraq would be different if his more bloodthirsty instincts didn't take over (My guess is that we would have deposed him anyway if Iraq became strong enough to counterbalance Israeli power). Anyway, very insightful and interesting read.
February 24, 2026
If the 2008 Republican campaign to cite Obama's middle name as a connection to the former Iraqi dictator is any evidence, then Saddam Hussein is certainly a well-known, yet scarcely understood figure in the west. Both Bush senior and junior made a presidential campaign of demonizing Saddam for their respective invasions of Iraq, which I imagine clouded efforts to produce a balanced biography of the man in English. Thankfully, we have Saïd K. Aburish's Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge.
Aburish, a Palestinian journalist, brings the advantages fluent Arabic, of having worked within the Saddam regime, and ultimately a Middle Eastern prespective to his biography. Saddam's life took him from an obscure birth a rural Iraqi village to rising to leadership of Iraq's Ba'ath party, modernizing the country in his early rule and then throwing it into catastrophe through war and despotism. Almost a parallel life to Josef Stalin, with the mustache to match, and in this case consciously, as Saddam read extensively on the Soviet dictator and emulated him in both personaltiy and politics. "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" is an ironic maxim when a leader takes inspiration from history.
The modernizing side of Saddam's regime is something I'd imagine is little well-known in the west.
Yet as Aburish explains, and drawing on his own experience, Saddam had great popular appeal in the 60's and 70's inside and outside of Iraq. Raising the standard of living, standing up to Israel, and carving Arab an independent Arab path in the wake of Western colonialism. Behind these advancements was an undemocratic system backed by violence and repression, particular of Iraq's Kurdish and Shia populations. The excesses of Saddam's regime worsened as his rule progressed, culminating in a series of disastrous wars with Iran, Kuwait, and the United States.
The contradictions of Saddam's rule reflected the contradictions in his personality, of an often polite, intelligent, and methodical, yet violent, paranoid, and driven by revenge and pride. The latter of these traits surfaced more clearly in the waning days of his rule. Clearly, he came to unconsciously mimic Stalin as well.
Of course, America shares a huge portion of the blame for the ruin of Iraq in the 21st century, which Aburish outlines, even with his biography published before the second invasion in 2003. From supporting Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war, to causing immense collateral damage in the Gulf War, to crippling sanctions that punished Iraq's people more than Saddam, to never backing genuine democratic forces in Iraq. Colonial attitudes survive long after empire's formally left.
Overall, an excellent biography of Saddam Hussein. Aburish's familiarity with the regime and local culture and language are a great asset to this book. Certainly a great resource to learn about the life and rule of Saddam Hussein.
Aburish, a Palestinian journalist, brings the advantages fluent Arabic, of having worked within the Saddam regime, and ultimately a Middle Eastern prespective to his biography. Saddam's life took him from an obscure birth a rural Iraqi village to rising to leadership of Iraq's Ba'ath party, modernizing the country in his early rule and then throwing it into catastrophe through war and despotism. Almost a parallel life to Josef Stalin, with the mustache to match, and in this case consciously, as Saddam read extensively on the Soviet dictator and emulated him in both personaltiy and politics. "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" is an ironic maxim when a leader takes inspiration from history.
The modernizing side of Saddam's regime is something I'd imagine is little well-known in the west.
Yet as Aburish explains, and drawing on his own experience, Saddam had great popular appeal in the 60's and 70's inside and outside of Iraq. Raising the standard of living, standing up to Israel, and carving Arab an independent Arab path in the wake of Western colonialism. Behind these advancements was an undemocratic system backed by violence and repression, particular of Iraq's Kurdish and Shia populations. The excesses of Saddam's regime worsened as his rule progressed, culminating in a series of disastrous wars with Iran, Kuwait, and the United States.
The contradictions of Saddam's rule reflected the contradictions in his personality, of an often polite, intelligent, and methodical, yet violent, paranoid, and driven by revenge and pride. The latter of these traits surfaced more clearly in the waning days of his rule. Clearly, he came to unconsciously mimic Stalin as well.
Of course, America shares a huge portion of the blame for the ruin of Iraq in the 21st century, which Aburish outlines, even with his biography published before the second invasion in 2003. From supporting Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war, to causing immense collateral damage in the Gulf War, to crippling sanctions that punished Iraq's people more than Saddam, to never backing genuine democratic forces in Iraq. Colonial attitudes survive long after empire's formally left.
Overall, an excellent biography of Saddam Hussein. Aburish's familiarity with the regime and local culture and language are a great asset to this book. Certainly a great resource to learn about the life and rule of Saddam Hussein.
March 8, 2020
After four books, it seems quite clear that Aburish is a simple mind looking for simple thrills. The good guys restore peace. Never mind the bodies piling at the side gate of the palace. The bad guys are looting and pillaging. Never mind if they built wells or sent students abroad. The problem is precisely this sort of mind. This is the mind that weaves fairy tales. History is a bit different.
April 19, 2020
Excellent if a little tiring book on a history of Saddam's rise to power and reign until 2000, when the book was written. It very prophetically warns that if Saddam is overthrown - and the author is very much in favor of Saddam being removed from power - then the region will dissolve into chaos, which is exactly what happened.
March 17, 2021
A dry two star read elevated by its prescient analysis/predictions of post 2000 turmoils.
May 24, 2024
What an odd, compelling, necessary piece of work. On the one hand it’s a complete indictment against the lies used to oppose the war that came a few years after its publication. On the other it’s an unapologetic apology for a madman.
Aburish interlaces his biography with attempts to downplay his own complicity in Saddam Hussein’s career of evil, undermining rather than strengthening his credibility, as he imagined, intermittently participating in the arms buildup that was still being denied vociferously in 2003 despite decades of intent and years of stymied inspections that presented a clear pattern, alongside the hypocrisy of France’s parallel complicity, alongside the lie that only U.S. greed for oil could possibly explain its motives despite Aburish describing an oil program behind the output of Iraq’s smaller neighbors.
No, Aburish paints a portrait, despite himself, of an Arabian Stalin (he repeatedly emphasizes how Saddam idolized the USSR head thug, and followed in his every ideological footstep, stopping only In throwing his lot behind communism mostly because it would’ve theoretically given anyone but himself power, which was the one thing Stalin stopped short of in his reign of terror, imagining and killing enemies everywhere but still supporting an idea over his own central position, which Saddam was fundamentally incapable of doing, why even Stalin was eventually replaced but Saddam vehemently opposed considering such a fate).
No, Saddam’s record is not what Aburish imagines, somehow remotely justifiable, who slaughtered indiscriminately his own people (just not his tiny Tikriti minority he catapulted to power to insulate his position), his willingness to plunge his people into wars he never prepared for, despite his primitive genius (as Aburish frequently imagines). Aburish allows himself to be swayed by mob logic, of the gangsters who buy the affections of the masses all while setting conditions that really only favor themselves. A brief career of pumping up a country to near-19th century levels in the late stages of the 20th is hardly to be commended, but that doesn’t stop Aburish from trying…
But the record he produces, until he literally spends the last twenty or so pages weeping for a people victimized by Saddam’s arrogance, terrorized into compliance and starved deliberately to a medieval state, still mocks the accusations that tried desperately to prop Saddam up as some kind of martyr once it was decided his brand of maneuvering an entire region to suit his ego could no longer be tolerated, at a time when extremism had been pushed to its fullest extent, even if the results of an Iraq without Saddam plunged it wholly back to complete barbarism, where he had pushed it so enthusiastically all along anyway.
That’s why I recommend such a compromised book, even as Aburish fills it with non sequiturs, jumping from one thought to a completely opposing one from one paragraph to the next, repeating himself well before the tragedy he attempts to paint from the Gulf War to 1999, including Bill Clinton’s repeated complicity in the state of affairs that no longer tolerated Saddam once he was no longer useful (as shameful as it is that he was ever considered, but with no good options, and Aburish includes a breakdown of the country’s ineptitude from well before Saddam ever took power). That Aburish never analyzes anyone’s motivations, and seldom seems to remember that Saddam himself is his central thesis, again, is irrelevant.
He debunks myths while creating his own. But in the final analysis, these are the bones with which Saddam Hussein was composed. They were rotten to the core. There was never any escaping that.
Aburish interlaces his biography with attempts to downplay his own complicity in Saddam Hussein’s career of evil, undermining rather than strengthening his credibility, as he imagined, intermittently participating in the arms buildup that was still being denied vociferously in 2003 despite decades of intent and years of stymied inspections that presented a clear pattern, alongside the hypocrisy of France’s parallel complicity, alongside the lie that only U.S. greed for oil could possibly explain its motives despite Aburish describing an oil program behind the output of Iraq’s smaller neighbors.
No, Aburish paints a portrait, despite himself, of an Arabian Stalin (he repeatedly emphasizes how Saddam idolized the USSR head thug, and followed in his every ideological footstep, stopping only In throwing his lot behind communism mostly because it would’ve theoretically given anyone but himself power, which was the one thing Stalin stopped short of in his reign of terror, imagining and killing enemies everywhere but still supporting an idea over his own central position, which Saddam was fundamentally incapable of doing, why even Stalin was eventually replaced but Saddam vehemently opposed considering such a fate).
No, Saddam’s record is not what Aburish imagines, somehow remotely justifiable, who slaughtered indiscriminately his own people (just not his tiny Tikriti minority he catapulted to power to insulate his position), his willingness to plunge his people into wars he never prepared for, despite his primitive genius (as Aburish frequently imagines). Aburish allows himself to be swayed by mob logic, of the gangsters who buy the affections of the masses all while setting conditions that really only favor themselves. A brief career of pumping up a country to near-19th century levels in the late stages of the 20th is hardly to be commended, but that doesn’t stop Aburish from trying…
But the record he produces, until he literally spends the last twenty or so pages weeping for a people victimized by Saddam’s arrogance, terrorized into compliance and starved deliberately to a medieval state, still mocks the accusations that tried desperately to prop Saddam up as some kind of martyr once it was decided his brand of maneuvering an entire region to suit his ego could no longer be tolerated, at a time when extremism had been pushed to its fullest extent, even if the results of an Iraq without Saddam plunged it wholly back to complete barbarism, where he had pushed it so enthusiastically all along anyway.
That’s why I recommend such a compromised book, even as Aburish fills it with non sequiturs, jumping from one thought to a completely opposing one from one paragraph to the next, repeating himself well before the tragedy he attempts to paint from the Gulf War to 1999, including Bill Clinton’s repeated complicity in the state of affairs that no longer tolerated Saddam once he was no longer useful (as shameful as it is that he was ever considered, but with no good options, and Aburish includes a breakdown of the country’s ineptitude from well before Saddam ever took power). That Aburish never analyzes anyone’s motivations, and seldom seems to remember that Saddam himself is his central thesis, again, is irrelevant.
He debunks myths while creating his own. But in the final analysis, these are the bones with which Saddam Hussein was composed. They were rotten to the core. There was never any escaping that.
July 16, 2021
Overall, the book is not that bad to read... the best part about it are the details of Aburish’s involvement in buying weapons for Saddam and how the contracts were done...
but book is a roller coaster of dryness, rumors, and inaccuracies... its good that it collects all the rumors (sometimes he corrects somethings in other books) and have some theories, but he is such a bad reader of Iraqi history... some of the analysis is good though but by the end of the book, most of it is just speculation ...
Just like any other book written before 2003!
but book is a roller coaster of dryness, rumors, and inaccuracies... its good that it collects all the rumors (sometimes he corrects somethings in other books) and have some theories, but he is such a bad reader of Iraqi history... some of the analysis is good though but by the end of the book, most of it is just speculation ...
Just like any other book written before 2003!
June 8, 2024
سيرة مرعبة.
August 18, 2024
It was interesting to hear about the authors own connection to Saddam’s regime as well the West’s own culpability.
July 15, 2025
written before his overthrow and death, it tells a history that is nowadays inconvenient - monster, supported throughout by he CIA
August 29, 2016
This is a well-written book on the historical context around the rise of Saddam Hussein and the progression of his rule.
As I do with any book about the Middle East, I take what's written in it with a grain of salt (and especially the last 10%). But it gave me quite a bit to think about, and the author, Saïd Aburish, is sufficiently persuasive about his criticism of Western actions not being criticism of Liberal values or morals, or coming from a place of anti-Western ideology, or the beliefs in Western conspiracies that fill Arab minds.
I knew little about Saddam before reading this book, and I can recommend it as a good place to start.
As I do with any book about the Middle East, I take what's written in it with a grain of salt (and especially the last 10%). But it gave me quite a bit to think about, and the author, Saïd Aburish, is sufficiently persuasive about his criticism of Western actions not being criticism of Liberal values or morals, or coming from a place of anti-Western ideology, or the beliefs in Western conspiracies that fill Arab minds.
I knew little about Saddam before reading this book, and I can recommend it as a good place to start.
December 29, 2007
An absorbing insight into the life of Saddam, however slightly leaning toward Saddam sympathy, read this along with John Simpsons Wars of Saddam & you will get an all round picture of a remarkable al-by ruthless individual & the politics that brought him to power & kept him there.
January 19, 2011
Balanced view of the late dictator.
September 28, 2013
Balanced account of a ruthless dictator's life
January 24, 2015
Fairly balanced biography for a western publication.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews