Too Much Love for Saddam?

“We will challenge them if they cross the boarder, oh Saddam.
The victory is for you, oh Saddam.
With our blood and with our soul
We sacrifice ourselves for you, oh Saddam.”
The song, which was sang by Iraqis in the chapter Baghdad: In the Land Without Water, shows how extremely brainwashed Saddam had his followers. Saddam not only lead a dictatorship, is reminded me of a cult. His people would do anything for him, even if it meant the end of their life. I do not understand how one man can convince thousands that he is worth their own lives. Saddam, although terribly evil, had a great gift. He knew how to understand people and knew what they wanted to hear. Saddam would twist his wishes around so it seemed that it was the people who actually wanted what he wanted. He had a great power over his people, he was the only thing they knew and they wished to keep it that way. His face covered the nation as he promoted violence and terrorism. Many times people are wrong to blame their leader for the fall of their nation, but in this case, Saddam is to blame for a great deal of the issues Iraq now faces. As expected, there were some people who did not like Saddam, but these people would never let that be known. If you said or did, or owned anything that was anti-Saddam, instant execution. Saddam scared his people into believing his every word. A leader like Saddam usually has a pretty long run, but like most evil dictators his actions caught up with him. I remember so vividly hearing that Saddam had been captured and I remember more recently watching him be put to death. Even with all the knowledge of what he had done, seeing him killed sent shivers down my spine and scared me so much. It scared me even more that he faced his death with no expression, he showed no sorrow and no fright. I didn’t understand why his death scared me, he deserved it, he had killed so many of his own people, then why did executing him still seem so awful to me? I am still unable to explain my feelings of that moment, I doubt I ever will. I believe it is solely because I know killing people is wrong, but in this case I believe he deserved it, all the people who he had killed, and their families deserved it.
-DPD