here is something fun to read, unlike the comments down there where we engage in index-finger wagging at each other. this i got from Douglas who has always been thoughtful and sends me artcles from french magazines or newspapers translated. thanks douglas, this one is exceptionally good.It is about events before the first Gulf War.
if vous parlez francais then go to this link:
[Un après-midi avec Saddam]
if you are no-french-please then go to this link, I hope i have not done a faux-pas by posting your translation douglas:
[An Afternoon with Saddam]
it is on an abandoned blog.
my favourite bits:

......blablabla........“You can tell comrade Fidel Castro,” he (Saddam Hussein) said getting up, “that I thank him for his solicitude. If the troops of the United States invade Iraq, we shall crush them like that,” he concluded resoundingly, stamping the carpet several times with his shining military boots... The audience had ended...........blablabla........Without asking us to repeat what happened again, he (Fidel Castro) only asked the Gallego to imitate with his own feet the gesture with which Saddam had shown how he would crush the Americans.

It's like watching two kids talking about a fight in the playground, me crush you lika cock-a-roach, youyou.
We'd rather not talk about who crushed who. As for the next "Mother of all Battles".... one word (shock'n'awe). learn it in arabic: al-ithara wa al-faza. that's like putting stones in the middle of mud-cakes and throwing them at me, cheater.