SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURE PWNED FULL
SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURE PWNED TRIAL

Getting to know the enemy subverts this process. I can’t see a human being.” Military training necessarily conditions soldiers to see things this way. In Norwegian author Geir Angell Øygarden’s book “Bagdad Indigo,” an American soldier says, “My enemy doesn’t have a face. “I feel like I let him down,” he whispered.

His compartmentalization of these experiences is not as bizarre as it seems, but instead reveals how it is more difficult to play a role in the death of someone you have grown to know than to shoot at an anonymous enemy target.Īnother of Hussein’s young guards, a broad-shouldered former linebacker from outside Cleveland, told me, “It didn’t really hit us until we had time to distance ourselves, but once the dust settles and you’re lying in your bed at night, your mind wanders, and you think: Did I really just do that? We’d gotten so close to him …. As we nursed our beers, this tough, tattooed veteran of numerous deployments could at once casually show me pictures of dead insurgents, half-joking, “You never forget your first,” and then grow emotional when remembering his time with Hussein and the ugly execution. But he was still troubled by the execution. He was 10 years older now, and had carved out a comfortable life for himself and his young family. These thoughts were on my mind as I sat across from another one of the soldiers who had guarded Hussein. I wondered how it was that we could seemingly get along well in person, and yet return to our separate beds after those relaxed meetings, lay our heads on our pillows, and discover over the next morning’s coffee that our guys had killed some of their guys, or vice versa. It was these peculiar idiosyncrasies that made him - that make all people - human. I remember growing fixated on the most random things - how he hitched his pants up towards his belly the way my father sometimes does, the way he would pause after a bad joke, seemingly eager for approval. Conversely, he knew that Americans had killed his brother in a firefight. I never quite reconciled how, back in 2006, I could have cordial weekly meetings with a local Iraqi leader in the violent city of Hit - complete with chai tea and relaxed laughter - all the while aware of his links to the insurgency. Instead of the “crazed madman” they had expected to encounter, “holding the bars of his cell and shouting, ‘Death to America!’ ” they came to know a kindly older man, whose company reminded a few of their own grandpas. On an intellectual level, they knew that Hussein had been responsible for terrible bloodshed, but they had never seen Hussein commit these crimes.

SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURE PWNED FULL

He patted one leg, said, “This leg gazelle,” and then patted the other one, saying, “This leg not gazelle.” He paused briefly, still smiling, and concluded, “Once I get stronger, and am a full gazelle, I am going to jump that fence outside and escape.”Īs I spent two years working on my book about American guards assigned to care for Hussein, my mind kept circling back to just how peculiar their assignment was: to keep him as healthy and content as possible until it was time to hand him over to be killed. Hussein fixed his gaze on Tasker and flashed his devilish grin. He was one of only 12, though, whose primary responsibility was guarding - really, caring for and living alongside - the former dictator in the months leading up to his execution. Nearly three years later, Tasker was one of about 140,000 troops deployed to Iraq. Some feared the war would be over before they even had a chance to deploy and put their training to use. Specialist Chris Tasker could hardly believe he was there, sitting across from the man, only a few years removed from a snowy morning at basic training when a drill sergeant had pulled the trainees inside to see the breaking news: Hussein had been captured. Tasker and the other recruits had let out a loud cheer. The young military policeman sat watching as Saddam Hussein carefully began to eat his breakfast in sections, beginning with the omelet (which he’d reject and send back for a new one if it was “torn” in any way) before moving on to a sugary muffin.

SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURE PWNED TRIAL

Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close MenuĪssociated Press file photo, David Furst/PoolFormer Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein gestures during his trial in Baghdad on Oct.

Saddam hussein capture pwned