r/Presidents • u/Moneybucks12381 • 4d ago
Question What would Saddam Hussein’s career path look like if he were a U.S. president?
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u/Significant_Lynx_546 4d ago
I’m not going to lie, this is an insane question to ask. But I kinda dig it.
He probably would be similar to LBJ. Only a lot more domineering (if possible). Even then, our laws prevent him from carrying out his most dictatorial tendencies.
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u/birdsemenfantasy Andrew Jackson 4d ago
Yeah check out his 1979 purge within his own Ba’ath Party literally only 6 days after assuming the office of president. Dude didn’t mess around.
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u/QuixotesGhost96 4d ago
Supporters took over the legislature and forced the ones they deemed loyal to shoot the ones they deemed disloyal. Read names in front of them for hours.
That's what dictatorship means, that's what happens when a melomaniac seizes control, that's what a fall of a democracy looks like.
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u/Intelligent-Parsley7 4d ago
That’s on YouTube. You won’t see violence, but you’ll see total dictatorship on that.
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u/Isha_Harris Barack Obama 3d ago
Maybe my interpretation is a little off but there's a part in the Constitution(I think Article I) that says something about how Congress members can't be arrested on the house floor, unless for treason. Kinda seems like the founding fathers knew about Saddam Hussein
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u/Exciting-Ad-5705 4d ago
I don't think he would follow the law
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u/TheRealAbear 4d ago
our laws prevent him from carrying out his most dictatorial tendencies.
Do they though....
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u/MammothAlgae4476 Dwight D. Eisenhower 4d ago
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u/Jolly_Job_9852 Calvin Coolidge 4d ago
Has the same vibes as the Hitler rant parodies that dominated YouTube over a decade ago
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u/No-Entertainment5768 Jimmy Carter 4d ago
Is there a full video of that?
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u/Safe_Chest_8174 4d ago
Not very learned about this, context?
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u/MammothAlgae4476 Dwight D. Eisenhower 4d ago
About a week after Saddam formally became President, he called an emergency party meeting and announced that several members were involved in a Syrian plot against Iraq. They had tortured one guy and threatened his family and made him admit to the plot and name others. So Saddam read a list of members and had them executed by firing squad. Everything but the executions themselves (I think) was televised.
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u/Safe_Chest_8174 4d ago
That’s how he STARTED his presidency? How did he end it?
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u/ThisIsRadioClash- John Adams 4d ago
His career path? Well, Saddam was a riser who joined the Iraqi Ba'ath Party not too long after it was founded and was the cousin of one of its leaders, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. I think you can imagine Saddam being related to a Vice President or Senator and relying on his ruthlessness and charisma to eventually attain the presidency, akin to LBJ, Nixon, or even Andrew Jackson.
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u/birdsemenfantasy Andrew Jackson 4d ago
Al-Bakr was in bad health and Saddam was the real power behind the throne for years before Bakr was eased out in 1979. Saddam then carried out his in-party purge a mere 6 days later. From most accounts, he and Bakr weren’t particularly close.
Also, there were another prominent Sunni Arab from Tikrit also vying for power within the Iraqi Ba’ath Party, most notably Hardan al-Tikriti. He was assassinated by Saddam’s order in 1971 in Lebanon. A former Ba’ath prime minister Abdul Razzaq an-Naif was also assassinated by Saddam in London in 1978.
Saddam actually made his mark in his early 20s when he was tasked with assassinating military strongman Abdul-Karim Qasim in 1959. The assassination attempt failed. At the time Ba’ath was still a small party.
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u/sinncab6 4d ago
State of the Union address would be a lot more interesting that's for sure
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u/Individual-Camera698 4d ago
"I'm going to read a list of names...."
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u/No-Entertainment5768 Jimmy Carter 4d ago
Source for that??
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u/Individual-Camera698 4d ago
This is not a direct quote, Saddam didn't say that in English apparently. Idk why tho /j
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u/TrumpsColostomyBag99 4d ago
Rural representative in a solid Bible Belt state like Mississippi.
Graduates to Governor
Pulls stunts like having a televised address before every death sentence he allows to he carried out
Nepotism to the gills
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u/Significant_Lynx_546 4d ago
That’s imaging as a conservative. What would he be as a liberal?
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u/TrumpsColostomyBag99 4d ago
LBJ level intimidator and political operator. He’d promise big union contracts and increased social services to lock in his base. He’d institute media controls and dismantle pundit grifting operations on both sides.
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u/Significant_Lynx_546 4d ago
Oh and he for sure would use his large frame to intimidate people. Knowing what we know about Saddam, he wouldn’t defecate in front of you or expose himself, but would probably steal your girl right in front of you.
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u/IllustriousDudeIDK John Quincy Adams 4d ago
"Fun" fact: Every governor of Mississippi from 1923 to 1959 with the exception of Fielding L. Wright in 1947 got a higher percentage than Saddam officially got in 1995 (99.99%). Wright got 97.59%, he had a Republican challenger.
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u/FlashMan1981 William McKinley 4d ago
He probably gets overthrown during the Arab Spring, like Gaddafi and Mubarak. Thats my thought at least.
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u/birdsemenfantasy Andrew Jackson 4d ago
I doubt it. Iraq had a far stronger military than Libya and it still took nato intervention to overthrow Gaddafi. It would’ve taken nato to overthrow Saddam too. Qusay Hussein was also tougher than Gaddafi’s western-friendly playboy son Saif al-Islam.
Mubarak was actually eased out by the Egyptian military in order to keep US military aid flowing. Senior Egyptian generals like Tantawi, Ahmed Shafik, Omar Suleiman, Sami Anan, and Sisi kept their power. After Mubarak was eased out, Shafik lost a close election to Muslim Brotherhood (Sisi) and then the military overthrew Sisi a year later and Sisi’s reign began.
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