What has Saddam Hussein done wrong?

Question

I don't know ANYTHING to do with Saddam Hussein and why he is so hated. What did he do wrong? What led the USA forces to invade Iraq in 2003?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Killed his own people...

Answer 2

Unlike the others, here I will tell you. The US selected a power that had a keen interest in modernizing, and seemed to want to form a secular government, much like Turkey's. With an ever strengthening Soviet presence in the Mid-East, the US, and its allies, focused on keeping the oil fields open to the global marketplace. Things went sour with the Shah, as he was quite brutal, and was ousted in the Islamic Revolution.

The Iraqis seized the moment, and began an offensive, while we (US and allies) supplied them with munitions and money, in exchange for lucrative oil contracts. After being repulsed, Hussein had to contend with militant Kurds, who seemed to want autonomy. His response, as with Iran, was to use chemical weapons, killing thousands of his own citizens in a few days. The US became distraught, but, really couldn't do much of anything, seeing as it has supplied the Iraqis with their might. Slowly things festered through the late eighties and early nineties, with Israel bombing an "experimental nuclear weapons" facility and other such maneuvers, until finally, Clinton decided enough was enough. After Iraq seized the neighboring kingdom of Kuwait, and declared it a province of Iraq, the US and nearly 40 other nations invaded Iraq. But, before our troops arrived in Baghdad, the US Senate ended the War, recalling our troops. Not even a decade later, we found ourselves there again, after what was thought to be Chemical Weapons vehicles, and other such things throughout the country, in defiance of the UN brokered peace, caused the US to invade again, but largely in a unilateral move.

Saddam Hussein was eventually captured, and was put on trial. His trials are yet to be completed, but he has already garnered the Death Penalty, and will likely receive it again, before it's all done.

Answer 3

Saddam has done many wrongs during the decades he's been in power. I'll list a few of them, but the real question is, since he's been in power for years, and has always done these things, what happened in 2003 to make the US invade?

First, here are some of Saddam's crimes:
- Murder of Sunni religious leaders (dates back to 1969)
- Arrest, torture, and often murder of religious groups and political activists
- Arrest of thousands and murder of hundreds of religious people that rose up against him in 1977.
- War against Iran in 1980 in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed.
- Use of chemical weapons on his people.
- Invasion of Kuwait (resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths).
- Murder of leaders of rival political parties (dozens of them).
- Etc., etc.

The problem I have with the war is that it seemed to have come out of no where. One day, we're focused on capturing Osama bin Laden and the war in Afghanistan (which was really a joke). And the next minute, Saddam Hussein and Iraq were targets (because they thought he might have weapons of mass destruction). The Afghan war was justified by the events that took place on 9/11/2001. The world at large agreed that justice must be served.

Invading Iraq; however, was not accepted by the general population because Iraq was not seen as an imminent danger. In fact, Saddam had zero ties with Al Qaeda (remember, he's a dictator and will never support an opposing power).

Bush didn't want to give the UN and the weapons inspectors time to complete the fact finding mission. I believe it's becuase the result was to be that no weapons exist.

I personally believe Bush went to war in order to gain a friendly government in the country with the 2nd largest oil reserve. Also, his father fought against Sadaam in the Kuwait war, but his father couldn't "finish the job". So, GW thought he'd "finish his daddy's work"!

Just my two cents...

Answer 4

I don't know, something about mass murdering and trying to wipe out a group of people. Could have been murdering and raping women and children. Or, maybe running a police state, hoarding all the profits from the oil of the people and trying to take over kuwait.

As far as invaded in 2003, it was primarily due to his failure to obey/abide by UN resolutions intended to make the area safe. Also, he refused to let anyone confirm he was not holding nuclear weapons and stated he was. Only to add to it, some erroneous information was provided to Britain, the U.S. and other countries stating he actually did have nuclear weapons. Based on all that we invaded to remove Saddam.

Answer 5

Saddam ruled a country that owns a lot of oil.He is a dictator and
a killer. He invaded foreign countries to get at their goods such as oil. He was responsible for small wars. .
He tortured many people and killed them for no moral reason. He made fools of his citizens by taking away many amenities.Then he pampered his own while his citizens starved to death.

Answer 6

He was a dictator.
He killed people.

frankly, the world always has the U.S. police it via the U.N. and then condemns them for policing countries like Iraq when we invade because we're not going about it judiciously. I don't get it.
We went in because it was an unstable region that was affecting our lives(oil, gas, stocks, fear of WMD's, terrorists). The reason for that instability was a guy killing off a bunch of his own people in what is considered a "brutal" fashion. Therefore, we took aim at the cause.

Answer 7

Hello,

Please find in the foolowing link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/halabja)... information cocnerning one of the most famous and notorious act of Saddam Hussein against his own people.

Tal

Answer 8

As to why we invaded, George alluded to WMDs and that Iraq had something to do with 9/11, plus "That man tried to shoot my daddy!"

As far as the rest of it goes, he was just your garden-variety dictator: killing insurgents, torturing journalists, imposing his will on others, attacking neighboring countries, that kind of stuff

Answer 9

Here's a better question.

Who is worse? Saddam, Bush or Blair?

Answer 10

Oh, I admit, he's done wrong. He's an evil dictator who favored those who agreed with him and killed those who didn't. Sound like someone else you know, doesn't it? *cough*Kim Jong Ill*cough* But straight to the point, nothing to us. Unlike Osama bin Laden (who Bush couldn't care less about) who did, Saddam never attacked or ordered an attack on US soil, so technically, he did alot to Iraqis and nothing to us, unlike Osama who DID attack us.

Answer 11

Where to begin? Killed thousands of his own people, started three wars, paid for terrorists to blow up American sites, slept with his daughter, HAD weapons of mass destruction (the Russians pulled them out just before the invasion), stole billions (at least three) from his country, financed a couple of other wars... gee, I think I'll stop there, as it is too sickening to continue.