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Saddam's claim: Iraq prevailed in the 'mother of all battles'

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January 18, 2001 

BAGHDAD-- (AP) - Still full of bluster a decade after the Gulf War, President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday pronounced the conflict a great moment in Iraq's history and blithely ignored the reality of his crushing military defeat and the country's withered economy.

On the 10th anniversary of the war's start, Saddam offered an apocalyptic account of the "mother of all battles" that made only passing reference to the ferocious, U.S.-led bombing campaign and the lopsided ground war that chased demoralized Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

"On a day like this day 10 years ago, evil and all those who made Satan their protector lined up in one place, facing those who represented the will to defend what is right," Saddam said. Iraq's enemies were "stamped with disgrace and shame that will never disappear until doomsday."

The war threatened Saddam's iron rule, but when the United States and its allies chose not to push for his ouster, the Iraqi leader systematically eliminated all his domestic opposition and is perhaps stronger yesterday than at any time since the conflict.

Yet Iraq, which has endured two ruinous wars and a decade of comprehensive sanctions since Saddam became president 22 years ago, has been isolated internationally and has seen its once prosperous economy vanish.

Speaking with typically overheated rhetoric, the Iraqi leader made no direct mention of the economic and social turmoil or the other day-to-day problems faced by Iraq's 23 million people.

"Iraq has remained, the people have remained, the army has remained," proclaimed Saddam, who wore a navy blue suit and spoke standing next to an Iraqi flag during a 25-minute televised speech. "Iraq has triumphed over the enemies of the nation."

Saddam, ever vigilant for opportunities to score propaganda points against the United States, said Iraq intended to donate 100 million euros (dlrs 95 million) to help "poor people in America," according to a letter sent to the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Iraq was asking the United Nations to deduct the money from its oil-for-food program, under which Iraq is allowed to sell oil to buy humanitarian goods, the Iraqi News Agency reported.

Since the war, Saddam has not left the country and has not met another Arab leader. But in the latest sign that Iraq's isolation has begun to ease, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan met Wednesday in Egypt with President Hosni Mubarak.

Ramadan's visit was the first in more than a decade by a senior Iraqi official to Egypt, which belonged to the Gulf War coalition, but has recently been increasing contacts with Iraq.

Saddam did not mention Kuwait by name in his speech, though Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Tuesday night that Iraq had no regrets for invading the oil-rich emirate on Aug. 2, 1990.

"Iraq was the victim of conspiracy against its sovereignty and its national interests, and Kuwait was part and parcel of that conspiracy," Aziz alleged. "So Kuwait deserves what it had in 1990."

In contrast to Saddam's hyperbole, ordinary Iraqis invariably spoke about the heavy burden of sanctions since the war. The shrunken economy has largely wiped out the country's middle class and reduced a typical salary to no more than dlrs 10 to 20 a month.

"We would like to see the sanctions lifted and the return of normal relations between Iraq and other nations," said civil servant Hasan Munaim, 33, voicing a widely held opinion.

Iraq's economy has stabilized a bit under the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, which provides every Iraqi with a ration card that covers basic foods.

But Iraq complains the program is inadequate to meet larger needs such as rebuilding electrical plants that were destroyed by the bombing campaign. In schools and hospitals, standards have declined due to a lack of money.

Iraq has sold dlrs 40 billion worth of oil under the U.N. program, but due to war reparations and other expenses, has received only dlrs 10 billion worth of goods so far, according to U.N. figures.

Iraq is to receive an additional dlrs 10 billion in supplies, but deliveries are slow to arrive under the cumbersome program that requires the U.N. sanctions committee to approve all of Iraq's imports.

The United States has been the leading proponent of maintaining sanctions, saying they cannot be removed until Iraq meets U.N. resolutions calling for the country to completely dismantle its programs for weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq and the United Nations have been at an impasse since December 1998, when the U.N. weapons inspectors left amid a dispute over sites the U.N. team wanted to search. A new round of U.N.-Iraq talks is planned for February.