Twenty years after the fall of his regime, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein continues to arouse the admiration of many Jordanians, who see him as a “hero” of Arab and Palestinian causes.
While his portraits and the symbols associated with his reign have completely disappeared from public life in Iraq, his face is omnipresent in Jordan, whether on the stickers adorning car windows or the shells of mobile phones bearing his likeness.
On March 20, 2003, 150,000 Americans and 40,000 British were deployed for a lightning intervention. Three weeks are enough to seal the fate of Saddam Hussein’s regime and take control of Baghdad on April 9.
After a nine-month hunt, he was arrested on December 13, 2003, then tried and hanged at the end of 2006.
His party, the Ba’ath, was dissolved following the invasion, and anyone displaying his photos or slogans linked to his ousted regime could now be prosecuted.
In the streets of old Baghdad, however, one finds in antique shops various relics displaying the face of the former dictator. “I sell this to collectors,” says a seller who wishes to remain anonymous.
At a watchmaker in the old town, we find, if we insist a little, watches with the face of the ex-leader dating from the 90s.
One of them costs $400, says the watchmaker, who also wishes to remain anonymous. He half-expresses his fear of what the current government might think of his business.
In Jordan, however, Saddam’s face is more unbridled and many Jordanians openly express their nostalgia for the former strongman of Iraq.
“Tens of thousands of Jordanians have graduated from Iraqi universities through scholarships offered” under Saddam, Jordanian MP Khalil Attiyeh told AFP.
Saddam Hussein also supported the Palestinian cause and helped “the families of Palestinian martyrs to rebuild the houses demolished by the enemy” Israeli, he adds.
It is for these reasons that “Jordanians adore him, do not forget him and keep his photos, showing their loyalty to this heroic leader”, explains the MP.
Salameh Blewi, a 67-year-old entrepreneur who frequented Baghdad in the 1980s, calls him “a dignified and honest Arab leader with honorable positions”.
“Despite the war with Iran (1980-1988), Iraq was a rich country, but after Saddam, the country was looted by the corrupt,” he says.
Since the fall of the regime, “the wasted money has exceeded 600 billion dollars” to go into the pockets of “the corrupt and the parties in power”, accused the former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi in a television interview in March.
The human losses are also considerable: from 2003 to 2011, the year of the withdrawal of the American army, more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed, according to the organization Iraq Body Count. The United States has deplored nearly 4,500 dead.
“It’s not the fall of Saddam’s regime, it’s the fall of Iraq,” said Shaher Abu Sharkh, 67, who sells mobile phone accessories in Amman.
“Jordanians are convinced that Saddam Hussein (…) valiantly defended Arab causes. We all love him”, assures this trader.
For Zuhair Amleh, a seller of old books in Hashemite Square in Amman, Iraq “cannot go back to what it was”.
Jordanians regard the former leader “as a hero and a savior whose mission was to develop the Arab nation at all levels”, insists MP Khalil Attiyeh.
According to him, Saddam Hussein was “the only Arab leader to set up a military industry which made it possible to manufacture (everything), from bullets to missiles, and to have bombarded the Zionist entity (Israel) with 39 missiles manufactured by the Iraq”.
“If he were still alive, a lot of things would not have happened,” breathes for his part Anas Nahas, 19, who offers phone covers bearing the image of the former dictator in his shop.
He cites in turn “the crimes of the Israeli occupation against our people in Palestine”, the wars in Syria and Yemen and “the humiliation suffered by the Arabs”.
“The Arabs saw Saddam as the leader of the Arab nation,” confirms a former Iraqi diplomat, who was stationed in Amman.
The former Iraqi tyrant “endeared himself to many Arabs in Jordan, Palestine, Egypt and other countries during his lifetime, and even after his death”, he says.
08/04/2023 12:24:58 – Amman (AFP) – © 2023 AFP