Part IV: The Fall of Saddam

Many people think of Saddam as a Muslim and, unfortunately, associate his actions with the Islamic faith. But Georges rightly concludes that he is nothing of the sort. "Saddam's only religion was Saddam," Georges explains, "and his personal glory was the only higher power he recognized- He couldn't have cared less about Islam. Religion, like everything else, was merely a tool he could use whenever it suited his purposes."

As Georges points out in his book the name "Saddam," in Arabic, means "the Crasher." It's the word they use to describe a car crash. A surprisingly appropriate name for a despot who left his country in ruins.

To understand why Georges refers to the U.S. invasion of Iraq as the "liberation" and why most Iraqis are so happy to see Saddam behind bars (regardless of their opinions of the U.S. presence), consider the following story that Georges recounts:

"A man was watching a speech by Saddam on TV. He was sitting there with his family and at one point became fed up with hearing the same old lies, day after day. So he simply reached over and turned off the television. He said, 'I don't want to hear that anymore. I've heard it too many times.' And that was all. But the next day at school, his son, who was about seven or eight years old, told his teacher, 'My daddy turned off the TV because he didn't want to hear President Saddam last night.' An innocent comment? Less than a week later, undercover agents of the Mukhabbarat showed up at his door. They took his father away and he was never seen again."

As further evidence of Saddam's complete disregard for human life, Georges points out that when "Operation Iraqi Freedom" began in 2003, Hussein released 150,000 criminals onto the streets. One of the released prisoners is now back in jail and accused of killing 150 people. But that's actually pretty miniscule compared to Saddam's own personal record. According to Georges, 275 mass graves have now been discovered in Iraq, each containing anywhere from 50 to thousands of bodies.

Before the U.S.-led invasion, Georges, in his own words, was "convinced that another war was the last thing we needed. Sanctions and corruption were already destroying the country." This made him "eager to join the reconciliation movement and encourage Saddam to allow the weapon inspectors to come back and finish their job" even though he knew that there was only a slim chance that Saddam would relent.

But, though originally wary of the war, he now supports the invasion whole-heartedly. Though he criticizes a few strategic moves, such as the complete disbanding of the Iraqi army, Georges believes the invasion was a step forward, not a step back. His optimism and hope for the future of Iraq are at times contagious.

"With a renewed commitment by the Iraqi people to find a better way," Georges announces at the end of his book, "I believe we will see changes that dazzle the eyes of the world."

Georges is a visionary thinker-an idealist. I don't know what will happen to Iraq over the next ten years. The truth is that no one really does. We can only hope and pray that Georges' optimism is justified.