Saddam's Delusions

There is an extremely interesting article in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs summarizing a unique report from Pentagon's Joint Forces Command. This is an account of what happened within the Iraqi leadership in the run up to the Allied Forces invasion of Iraq in 2003. The report is built on official documents from the Iraqi regime and military and interrogations with senior Iraqi officials.

According to the report Saddam Hussein was totally convinced that the Allied Forces would not attack, and if the unlikely still would happen his military forces would fight them back. We all know what happen: the Allied Forces invaded Iraq and the Iraqi military forces were less than a hindrance. Thus, the report asks two principal questions: why did Saddam believe that there would be no attack and why were the Iraqi military so week? Read the article and you will see that the answers are closely connected.

Furthermore, if you have any knowledge about Operation Barbarossa you will find some striking similarities between Saddam Hussein's and Josef Stalin's behaviour and delusions. None of them wanted to accept reality and both of them refused to believe anything contradicting their own reality.