Saddam Hussein
A man full of determination and persistence, something that majority of world leader get along with in haste. He was born in 28th, April 1937 in Tikrit village, in Iraq. His thirst for readership oozed up when he was still a student, since 1957, while he was still at the university he was recruited in the ‘revolutionary Baath party’. As a man of a worldwide mind, he was determined to get his way at all mean to be an upstaired position.
“He proved this in 1958 when he launched his political career by assassinating a supporter of Iraq ruler Abdul-Karim Qassim” (Aburish, 40) The higher lank gone thirstier it makes” got on him as in 1959 Saddam felt that he had what it takes to rule Iraq and to do it in a practical was he opted to assassinate the current president Abd al-Karim Qasim. However, this mission failed and was forced to flee to Egypt Cairo, where he took this opportunity and attended a law school (45).
All in all, his determination and a spirit of “tomorrow is the best day” seemed to keep him going. Being in exile didn’t kill his dream of once becoming an Iraq leader.
Talking of being opportunistic, when Ba’thist gained power in 1963, he returned to Iraq but all was not well on his side because, in1963, Ba’thist were overthrown and he was jailed. He portrayed a mind of international oriented since dealing with his own country alone was a theory out of his envelop. He expanded his fume not only to the neighboring countries but also globally.
When he took over the presidency, he did it with the aim to cause an effect to other countries. For instant, he had an aim of replacing Egypt as leader of Arab world and gain hegemony over the gulf of Persian. He also launched war against Iran and Kuwait in 1980-88 and 1990-91 respectively. “Fear for him spread throughout the world due to his production of weapons of mass destruction” (Renfrew, p.53).
Saddam was one man who never believed in the spirit of “now I give up” his consecutively failed mission never deterred him from moving forward. For instant, his fail in invasion to the Islamic Republic in 1980 in Kuwait I 1990 among other only made him more hard-core.
According to Renfrew (32), “Saddam became vice president of Iraq in1968 following the seizure of power in a military coup and only after a decade of eliminating civilian officials and military officers ruthlessly, he forced out his predecessor and benefactor, Gen. Ahmad Hassan al- and became president in July 1997”.
He killed his opponents, among them thousands of Iraq’s Kurdish minority, (whom he had instituted a brutal dictatorship and directed intensive campaign against the) which either rebelled or supported Iran during the Iraq-Iran war which ended in 1988. He was a man with a reputation for ruthless suppression of opposition.
The country’s economic strength, constituted by growing oil wealth enabled him to support the development public work and to massively purchase arm. In spite of this, Iraq was nearly bankrupt with loans of $80 billion from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. His tendency of taking calculated risk pushed him to bullying Kuwait into bailing him out as well as invading emirate. (Renfrew p.37)
Saddam’s dictatorship rule and threat he posed to the whole world, led to invasion of the U.S. Government on Iraq. He was captured on 13th December 2003 and on 5th Nov 2006 after several trials, was convicted of crime against human rights and given capital punishment sentence.
Despite his request to be shot, the execution was carried out on the first day of Eid ul-Adha, 30 December 2006 at camp justice, an Iraq army in Kadhimiya northern Baghdad (Aburish p. 187). He has portrayed himself as a brutal dictator, whose goals are (to him) more important than the means of obtaining them, making him quick to slice throat to gain.
Adolph Hitler
Born in Austria, in Braunau –am-inn village on 20th April 1889, Hitler grew up in a very low tone a profile. His early age was met by many blocks and misfortunes which included losing his father and two siblings. His attempt to gain formal education was also unfruitful as his school records were poor and he was forced to leave school before completing his tuition.
In spite of this, he seemed to have a heart of determination, and he tried to become an artist but was rejected by the institution of fine art. He lived a penniless life with no formal education till 19th birthday when he moved to Vienna after his father’s death. By then, he had gained a passion in political matters and historical studies.
He took occasional menial jobs there for sustenance at the time the First World War was beginning, in 1914 when he was recruited for work in the Germans armed forces. His humbleness determination commitment enabled him to move up ladder smoothly. His talent and interest in war was noted and was promoted to corporal. (Toland p.12).
However, the war was not always giving in into him since by 1918, when the armistice was being announced he was hospitalized from a temporally blindness caused by gas explosion in war. As a phenomenon of preparation of his later leadership, he took different role like; prisoner-of- war camp, part of local army organization, spy on certain local political groups and, his tirade impressed the founder of the party, Anion Drexler who asked him to join his organization in 1919.
He gradually started attracting people through his publicity and propaganda in various organized meetings. He was discharged from army on February but he determiningly strengthened his party which was changed to the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi).
It is at this point when he started giving out warning on whom he really is when he began forming private groups of thug to create disorders in other meetings. By 1921 he had secured total control of the Nazi party, which he was determined to maintain by all mean, for instant he threatened to resign when he learned member were not in good term with him.
His thirst for leadership pushed him to attempt to take over the local Bavarian Government though the coup was unsuccessful. He was arrested and sentenced for five year and after only six month in prison he was released. He ran for presidential post several but defeated by Hindenburg and became chancellor in 1932-33. (Kershaw p. 63).
Hitler gained complete control over the destiny of Germany and when Hindernburh died on august 1934 Hitler took control over Germany as a “Fuehrer and Reich Chance” and the title president was abolished. He strengthened his force and started testing his power by intimidating France and Britain.
He gradually invaded Poland, Britain and France whom on September, 1, 1939 declared war on Germany which lead to death of thousands of people. “On April 29th, he married Eva Bruam, and eventually on April 30th they committed suicide in an underground bunker of the chancellery building having ordered their bodies to be burned” (Leeson p. 101).
In comparison Hitler and Saddam had commonalities as well as differences. Whereas Saddam used force and blood spill to attain power, Hitler was elected and promoted. In dealing with opposition, Hitler did not brutally kill his people as Saddam did. While Saddam was an international threat, Hitler was a threat to his neighboring countries.
On other hand, both Hitler and Saddam were dictators and they led to mass killing which were brutally done. In addition, they also both exercised coup against their presidents and were seen as a threat to both citizen of their country and other nations. Simply put both Hitler and Saddam are people who will always be remembered for their inhuman role in their regime.
Works Cited
Aburish, Said . The politics of revenge. London: Bloomsbury,2000. Print
Kershaw, Ian. Hitler: A Bibliography. New York: W. W. Norton& Com., 2008. Print
Toland, John. Adolph Hitler. Waterloo: Military History Series. Frankfurt: Wordsworth military library, 1997. Print
Leeson, Waite & Robert, George. The psychopathic god: Adolph Hitler. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1999. Print.
Renfrew, Nita. Saddam Hussein. Chelsea; Chelsea House, 1992. Print.