Is the US in process of making Saddam Hussein a "martyr" ?

[kentuck]

How much more killing and torture can the Iraqis withstand before they begin to believe that their lives were actually better under Saddam? How long until they demand that Saddam Hussein be turned over to them? How long before he is free to run for election for "president" of Iraq? That may be out of the realms of possibilities but, unless we change course and actions in Iraq, Saddam's reputation will become more enhanced with each passing day.

[acmavm]

1. I doubt that Saddam will ever be martyr material, but when the Iraqi

people start saying that life was better under Saddam, you know there's really big problems ahead.

[Mandate My Ass]

2. It's better to live in Saddam's hell than Bush's heaven

was a quote I read from an Arab who is outraged by the *ahem* abuse they see going on in Iraq.

From what I understand, the Arab media is all over this story. It is in all the newspapers and all the broadcasts and what is more, the Arab world is outraged by our media's fascination with Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson while the hell of Abu Ghraib is finally being revealed.

Saddam as a martyr? Maybe not. More like better the devil you know...

[wuushew]

3. Old Joe Stalin is still admired by some elderly Russians

and that is in a free and capitalistic new Russia not a bombed and occupied Iraq.

[Deja Q]

4. Their lives were horrible under Saddam.

But it's clear the US isn't making things easier.

I think we, as a country, have created a country full of haters. They hated Hussein. Now they hate us. Probably more because we felt righteous enough to meddle (their possible perspective viewpoint, all I know is that a lot of them justifiably hate us now). We meddled and then did the same exact things Hussein did.

They lived under Saddam. Yet they choose to fight against our troops. I wonder why.

[Old and In the Way]

5. Isn't it kind of odd that Iraqis put up with Saddam all those years?

Just about everyone has a gun, no shortage of bomb makers.....so why didn't they take matters into their own hands? I know he had quite a brutal security apparatus and used doubles, etc. But except for the Kurds in '91, I never heard of a revolt of the masses. Could it be that a majority saw the economic social benefits under Hussein in the 80s? Did they like a secular government or did they understand the religious civil war that could be unleasehed without a strong secular government to keep the peace?

I know this administration has made it a centerpiece of their propaganda efforts to paint Saddam as the Satan reincarnate and I know that he did his share of killing...but if the Iraqi people found him so intolerable, why didn't they overthrown him in the 90s?