Saddam Hussein

OK, probably not dumb-unintelligent .. but rather stupid-unwise. Either that, or one lousy poker player, as commented further below. Consider: - 1979: becomes President; blows away un-chummy-like Baath Party members; - 1980: declares war on a neighbour, Iran; - 1988: finally squirms out of war he launched, after Iran exhausted itself; - 1989: oddly quiet; probably had the flu or went on vacation; - 1990: declares war on a neighbour again (Kuwait), whose leaders insist that Iraq pay off its war loans; - 1991: has his Army make a run for it at the last minutes and gets it blowed up on the Highway of Death; shoots SCUD 'weapons of mass destruction' missiles into Israel; - 1992-2001: blowed up and gassed uppity Kurds; drained southern marshes and plugged Marsh Arabs; pisses off The High And Mighty by turning Iraq's oil-tap on and off at will; - 2002: suddenly realizes that having pissed of THAM wasn't a good idea, and that being in its crosshairs is even worse; ... Read more

He prepared his country for war against America and its allies, the Iraqis were waiting since 1999 for the U.S. invasion. He also gave his people 6 months worth of food before America invaded Iraq. Iraqi Shi'ite Muslims enjoyed their greatest standard of living under "evil" Saddam and his Ba'athist party.

Hung around with Leonard Bernstein and the rest of the limosine liberals. FACT.

Oscar....yet another right wing extremist...it was Leonard Cohen.

FUCK HIM.he disserved 2 die

Saddam was a normal Mid-Eastern dictator, that for the moment decided that he can outsmart the entire World. I do not think that Iraq has had indeed the nuclear weapon. Anyway, Hussein used the rumors about to frighten his best "friend" Iran. And this lie (if that was a lie) caused very far-reaching consequences. Hussein counld not believe that somebody may accept his words as a conclusive evidence. This was his mistake. Bush needed an excuse, and Hussein gave it to him.

Saddam was no saint, but he was guilty of fewer crimes than George W. Bush.

He may be an idiot, but Bush decided to let him go back to Iraq...mmm. I guess Bush wanted to prove that Iraq actually has a democracy right dudes?

I don't think he should be on this list. Confine it to Americans. Place this indivdual on an enemies list with Hitler, Stalin, and others.

There is a fine line between idiot and nut. I'll give maddaS the benefit of the doubt and say he's both.

A liar, a brutal tyrant, and a graceless lout make him one of the biggest idiots associated with American history. There is absolutely no excuse for what he did to his people.

I think he's insane, more than an Idiot

i liked him better when he grew in that cool beard.

You know, you get dealt five cards and you bid. The other guy is reading your body language and your bidding pattern and deciding whether you have that strong a hand. Eventually, someone gets an indication you're bluffing and the noose tightens. There's no turning back now, when you lay your cards down there's no deception. This dimwit put himself at the $10,000 table and never had more than a handful of 5's and 6's. He's not an idiot, just a lousy poker player. He won a bunch of hands at the $1 table and thought he could graduate to the big game. He thought wrong. When you lose at this table, the piper gets paid, one way or another.

Didn't he little s?

Was going us a favor killing those ingrates. Tolerated other religions unlike Saudi Arabia. When will the Iraq fight for themselves. Never. And those cops are usually running the other way. only reason they are there as cops and iraqi guardsmen is because Iraq has 70% unemployment.

Leader?

Saddam is a huge joke, nothing else

If I could give a lower rating, I would!

A hell of a lot smarter than Bush!

Any leader who can hold onto power and through a decade long war with Iran, a war with America, England, France and others during the early ninties, 10 years of crippling economic sanctions and finaly not ousted until 2003 must be a pretty good, strong leader. This is nothing to do with his morals or the fact that he was a tyrant which is not under question here. The fact of the matter is, he was a very strong leader, a terrible economist.....and a complete bastard. USELESS INFO: A friend of mine actually lived in Iraq, in a kind of camp for westerners, for a few months in the early eighties during the Iran-Iraq war, he was only about three or four. His major memories are not been allowed out on his own to play because bored iraqi soldiers on guard might mistake him for a small animal in the distance as all ever they did was shoot crows for target practice! All hail king saddam.

he seems idiot because bush make us to believe so. he could be the bad guy in his iraqi country, but just leave it so, it's their internal problem. does Iraqi people prefered to be ruled by saddam? or invaded by U.S.?

The US won the Gulf War I but they didn't deal with Saddam because o f international opinion which saw him terrorise the Iraqi public, Muslim's or otherwise for the next 12 years. He's more useful as a hitman director rather than as a leader. He'd be more suitable worshipping Satan than Islam. But he has been captured. The only thing left to do is to execute the damn fanatical b*****d.

A ruthless monster who deserves whatever fate deals him from this point on. Iraq became a virtual hellhole under his rule, with the people living in constant fear of the regime. While it is questionable as to whether or not Hussein posed an immediate threat to the United States, it is clear that he needed to be dealt with. The world is better off without him in power.

I'm not going to be completely bias here but on the side that he is an idiot he was found in a hole in the ground for crying out loud! If your gonna hide from us at least make it a good place. One the side that he's smart he does have unlimited power in his country. Not saying he's good but if he tells a group of people to go jump of the face of the earth they'll do it. And he's like a nuclear physiscist of something like that and thats pretty good in my book. But on the other hand he did try to hide weapons from us..if he had them at all..but if he didn't have them why did he hide..and well he still hid in a hole for a few months and that is pretty idiotic for a neuclear physisisisisict.

An idiot for thinking he could bluff the greatest nation on the Earth! And, now, he's in our custody!

Saddam is not dumb. He is definitely a psychopathic tyrant who was deservedly removed from office, but he is not a stupid man. He may be a your garden variety thug who has, through sheer ruthlessness, risen to a high position, but ambition without cunning does not lead to the kind of power and wealth he enjoyed. I hope it doesn't sound like I'm defending the guy, because I'm not. He was a rotten individual, but calling him an idiot is just childish.

Most of the people in this list have large egos which gets in the way of their better judgement. In my view, vanity is one of the most fatal flaws any person can have. Saddam's greatest weakness was his own opinion of himself as a military commander. He was a terrible military strategist who always overplayed his hand both during the Iraq-Iran war during the 1980's and the Gulf War. He managed to stay in power largely because of his expertise in coup planning and revolutionary politics. He was utterly ruthless when in pursuit of power. Saddam knew how to play different groups against each other very effectively. But what got him was his ego at the end of the day. The Iraqi military was no match for the Americans and he should have realized this.

Ok, so I assume he's here because of all the trash-talking he did about how tough the Iraqi military was. Fair enough, but you have to give the evil bastard his due for surviving and maintaining power with a cunning seldom seen since the Borgias.

Evil and unscrupulous, yes; idiot, no. He did overrate his own ability as a military leader, but for decades he showed an incredible skill at political survival.

way to go ahole!

We should have dealt with Saddam back in 1991 and a lot of people said, including myself, we should have taken him out then but international opinion prevailed and he is still a problem. Has every one forgotten a little thing called WW II were a repressive dictator became hostile to his neighbors amassed weapons and used them. Or did every one forget what happened on 9/11/01. I am sure Saddam had a big party that day. I am glad we did not wait for this monster to do some thing like 9/11. Hopefully him and all his cronies have discover there is only worst than desert heat waiting for them in the after life.

Murderer, rules by force and Killer of Aryans (Kurds)

Hardline Extreme-Leftist. Before the Gulf War he bragged about being an Athiest. He's only freedom was freedom of religion in which Iraq had the biggest Church of Satan in the world across the intersection from the biggest Mosque in Bagdad (from the 'Dictonarry of the Occult' of the 1980's). When he was attacked he started pertending to pray and use Allas(Gods) name. Gasses people & Supports Terrorist. An AntiChrist (Iraq was origanally called Babbelon), call him Satan.

In Iraq's last presidential election Saddam got 100% of the votes. No one else was stupid enough to run against him. I guess anyone who threatens to kill anyone else who votes against him would win by that kind of margin. I've heard of too many horror stories about what he does to his own people, the fear, control, torture, starvation, humiliation and ultimately death of innocent people. Remember when he released all of his prisoners to show the world how humane he is? I'm willing to bet a large majority of those people were innocent to begin with. You'd think that his crimes against humanity would be enough reason to wipe him out but noooo, the liberal left and all the anti-war (anti-american) protesters say we should never go to war because people die. Well, tell that to the Iraqi's who are tortured to death under Hussein. This isn't just a war we want to engage in, it's a rescue mission and the victims have been waiting too long.

I completely agree with Joe Lieberman on this one; Hussein is also a major threat to world safety and should not be overlooked in the war on terrorism. He's been sliding by way too long.

Public enemy #1 from 1990 until now.

an unforgiving poor sport

My god, its a sad indictment of western culture that this victim of media hysteria could rate lower than hitler.

Gee, I remember 15 or 20 years ago when I was working with Iraqi refugees - people with democratic principles, or of the wrong religion - against this tyrant and his party. Where were all the sanctimonious americans then? Why do you all think he invaded Kuwait (a complicated question involving the political history of the region that few north americans have any interest in or knowledge of, though they do have opinions)? He believed that the US would tolerate it. A slight miscalculation, but not without foundation.

The kind of man the world would be a better place without. Good on South Park creators for making a mockery of him!

3rd to Hitler. Also should have been assassinated a long time ago.