I’ve written before about Saddam Hussein’s ego. One can’t get a full sense of how much he meant to himself until visiting Baghdad. Thankfully, his penchant for building palaces throughout the country makes housing the coalition reconstruction effort easier. Almost every serviceable palace has been put to use by the Coalition for administrative purposes. The Republican Palace in Baghdad, where I work and where the US Embassy is housed, functioned as Saddam’s seat of government. He often chose to meet visiting foreign dignitaries there. I’ve met several Iraqis who work in the Palace who told me that Saddam never posted a schedule, especially after his defeat (which he characterized as a victory) by the US-led coalition in 1991. Exceptionally paranoid, not unlike his idol, Josef Stain, Saddam always varied his schedule rarely sleeping in the same place, er, palace, twice in a row. One of the Iraqis told me that every palace, especially the ones in Baghdad, was fully staffed and prepared daily meals in case Saddam chose to show up.
The central structure of the Republican Palace originally was built by the British in the 1920s. By the 1990s, Saddam effectively tripled the size of the building by adding two large wings on either side, along with an elaborate arching portico along the front. For the finish, he added two giant bronzed statues of his head, adorned with a warrior’s helmet that sat atop the ends of the porticos. These were referred to as the “Saddam Warrior Heads.” Naturally, after the Embassy and military command moved into the palace, the heads had to go (so pervasive and powerful was Saddam, that his visage still makes most Iraqis nervous). They eventually were removed using a large crane. For a time, the heads remained upright in a storage yard not far from the palace. Later, they were moved again but this time placed, unceremoniously, face down.
On New Year’s Eve, my friend Alan and I were walking around the grounds surrounding the palace in search of an Arabic restaurant called the Blue Star Cafe. Quite by accident, we came across the yard where the heads were stored. They were in the company of a Romanian gentleman, who was sitting with several Iraqis in the shade. I asked him, well, sign-languaged is a more appropriate term, if we could take pictures and smiled and said, yes. Coincidentally, it was the one year anniversary of Saddam’s execution by hanging; how the mighty have fallen -- literally and figuratively.
The central structure of the Republican Palace originally was built by the British in the 1920s. By the 1990s, Saddam effectively tripled the size of the building by adding two large wings on either side, along with an elaborate arching portico along the front. For the finish, he added two giant bronzed statues of his head, adorned with a warrior’s helmet that sat atop the ends of the porticos. These were referred to as the “Saddam Warrior Heads.” Naturally, after the Embassy and military command moved into the palace, the heads had to go (so pervasive and powerful was Saddam, that his visage still makes most Iraqis nervous). They eventually were removed using a large crane. For a time, the heads remained upright in a storage yard not far from the palace. Later, they were moved again but this time placed, unceremoniously, face down.
On New Year’s Eve, my friend Alan and I were walking around the grounds surrounding the palace in search of an Arabic restaurant called the Blue Star Cafe. Quite by accident, we came across the yard where the heads were stored. They were in the company of a Romanian gentleman, who was sitting with several Iraqis in the shade. I asked him, well, sign-languaged is a more appropriate term, if we could take pictures and smiled and said, yes. Coincidentally, it was the one year anniversary of Saddam’s execution by hanging; how the mighty have fallen -- literally and figuratively.
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