Book Review: Saddam's Secrets How an Iraqi General Defied and Survived Saddam Hussein by Iraqi General Georges Sada Copyright 2006 Review by Steve Fritsch (August 2007)
It has been over four years since President Bush gave orders to the U.S. Armed Forces to invade Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In that time span, we have seen overwhelming support for the war turn into overwhelming opposition against the war. We have seen the escape, the capture, and the botched execution of Saddam Hussein. We have seen Iraqis dancing in the streets enjoying their newfound liberty transform to Iraqis being engaged in a terrible sectarian conflict, coming close at times to full blown civil war. We have seen successes and we have seen mismanagement (lots of mismanagement). And recently we have seen that the ''surge'' has been working in pacifying large parts of Iraq that were once extremely dangerous (so successful in fact that liberal publications like The New York Times, The New Republic, and the German Der Spiegel have done a 180 and acknowledged it). Still for all the things that have gone wrong in Iraq there have been many things that have gone right. And regardless if an individual supported the invasion of Iraq or not, and regardless if support for the occupation/war is high or low, one thing is clear: Saddam Hussein was one of the worst dictators in all of human history and it is a blessing that he is no longer living in this world.
Then again, depending where you are on the political spectrum, you may not totally agree with that assertion. Indeed, there have been some people, particularly on the political left, who have said Iraq was ''better off'' under Saddam. To those people who believe Iraq was ''better off'' with Saddam in power I highly suggest you read one book in particular: Saddam's Secrets by former Iraqi General Georges Sada.
Sada, an Assyrian Christian, was air vice marshal in Saddam's military and one of his most trusted military advisors (Sada even personally knew Saddam before his rise to power). But because he never joined the Baathist party, Sada only climbed so high in the corrupted military. Had Iraq's system been built on merit, rather than loyalty to Saddam Hussein, there is little doubt that Sada would have been one of the top military officers in all of Iraq. In the book, Sada explains why he would not join the Baathist party, despite repeated attempts of Baathist members trying to persuade him to join.
Throughout Saddam's Secrets, General Sada goes to great lengths to explain to the reader just how sinister Saddam Hussein was. Sada details the evil nature of Saddam and his two sons, Uday and Qusay, along with their infamous torture tactics. General Sada also talks about little known facts about Saddam, including what was going through Saddam's head during the 2003 buildup of American-led forces around Iraq (Saddam, according to Sada, never actually believed that the U.S. would invade Iraq). In addition, Sada also points out that when Saddam finally did come to grips that the Americans were coming for him in the final days before the actual invasion, he decided to turn down asylum requests from numerous Arab nations and instead fight and possibly die in the country he ruled for over twenty years.
But the best reason to read Saddam's Secrets is to learn about the very serious threat Saddam Hussein posed to the world and his desire to possess weapons of mass destruction.
Ah, yes, weapons of mass destruction. You may have heard about these before. According to many in the mainstream media and political left, Saddam didn't have WMD (chemical and biological weapons) to begin with. It was all a lie by President Bush to invade Iraq for oil, right?
Wrong.
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According to General Sada:
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* Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons up until 2003.
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* Because of rapid rebuilding capabilities, Saddam managed to hide many weapons, along with the raw materials for building weapons of mass destruction.
* Saddam gave orders that the scientists who had been working on (WMD) programs were to keep their plans, diagrams, formulas, raw materials, and everything else in highly secure underground vaults so that they could continue their work the minute they were no longer being observed by United Nations weapons inspectors.
* If Saddam ever suspected that there was any chance the inspectors would find WMD, he would have everything destroyed.
* Though Iraq had not yet developed actual nuclear warheads it was working on them, and Saddam had developed sources in Europe, Asia, and America who were willing to supply whatever he needed.
* Saddam had even made arrangements with a group of nuclear scientists in China to produce nuclear arms for him.
* Saddam had ordered Iraq's weapons teams to hide the WMDs in places no military commander or United Nations weapons inspector would expect to find them. So they hid them in schools, private homes, banks, business offices, and even on trucks that were kept constantly moving back and forth from one end of the country to the other.
But even more fascinating is what General Sada says happened to the WMD that Iraq possessed before the 2003 invasion that were never found by U.S.-led forces in the aftermath of combat operations. According to General Sada (who says he was given this information from a man who was actually involved in the transfers), Saddam shipped his WMD stockpiles to Syria.
* After a dam collapsed in Syria on June 4, 2002, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asked for help from Iraq and Jordan, Saddam decided to pose shipments of supplies and equipment for aiding the relief effort with WMDs instead.
* Saddam reconfigured commercial airliners to hold WMDs. In addition to the shipments that went by air, there were also truckloads of weapons, chemicals, and other supplies that were taken into Syria at the time.
Therefore, according to General Sada, Syria has the WMDs that the Bush administration claimed Saddam possessed (which were based not only from U.S. intelligence reports, but also numerous other countries as well).
Despite the turmoil in his native country General Sada is "thankful" for his country's liberation and the chance for his fellow Iraqis to build a better future. But one passage in the book sums up the entire situation and leads the reader to realize how difficult this war has been:
"America made the right decision to come in and liberate Iraq, and despite some mistakes, I have to say they've done a great job... But the peace is still not won, and the future is uncertain. At the end of a war, there ought to be peace. If there isn't peace, you've done something wrong."
Yes, things have gone "wrong," but as Sada points out, the U.S. did do the right thing in liberating Iraq from Saddam and ending all speculation as to whether or not Saddam could, or would, ever hurt the world again with WMDs. And because we did do the right thing initially, it is important that the U.S. finishes the job in Iraq and leaves it with a chance to bring hope and peace to the Middle East (which will secure America's security as well).
Therefore, after reading Saddam's Secrets, I am even more committed to standing behind the Bush administration and the U.S. Military in trying to accomplish victory and peace in Iraq.
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