They came to Baghdad - how Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has used international reporters to solidify his political power

National Review, Feb 15, 1993 by Richard Beeston

There are few visitors to Baghdad who do not experience a sinking feeling as the first statues, posters, and mosaics of Saddam Hussein come into view after the grueling ten-hour drive across the desert from Jordan.

While in the past travelers would certainly have looked forward to the first glimpse of the sluggish waters of the Tigris, lined by palm trees and elegant villas, today most of the modern city is an uninspired Stalinist showcase of sprawling government buildings and three-lane highways which soften only at dusk, when the capital's skyline is dominated by the spectacular orange and purple hue of the desert sunset.

When I last saw Baghdad two years ago the city was beginning to adjust to the daily routine of relentless allied air bombardment which had systematically demolished the capital's entire infrastructure. The telecommunications buildings were gutted by precision bombing, the oil refinery at Doura was burned to the ground, most of the bridges linking the two halves of the capital were damaged or destroyed, and President Saddam Hussein's grip on the country was beginning to falter.

Today in his public appearances and speeches the haggard look of defeat is gone from the dictator's features. While not even the most ardent of his supporters can swallow the Orwellian doublespeak that Iraq won the Umm al-Maarik (Mother of All Battles), whose anniversary was celebrated last week across the country, President Saddam can claim with conviction that he has learnt from his mistakes and has emerged victorious from the postwar status quo in Iraq.

Among his most touted accomplishments are the reconstruction, by a highly trained stratum of Iraqi engineers, architects, and builders, of most of the industrial and military facilities which were destroyed by the allies. The telephones are back in operation, there is running water and electricity, and the country has demonstrated that it can function even under the restrictions of a two-and-a-half-year international trade embargo.

As Saddam's well-orchestrated attempt to provoke the Bush Administration in its last days in office proved, the allies today lack the ability on the ground and the resolve to topple Iraq's leader that marked the former thirty-nation coalition. Far from damaging his hold on power, the limited U.S., British, and French air and missile attacks actually strengthened President Saddam's hand in the region by reinforcing the argument of "double standards" in the West's treatment of Iraq and Israel, while exposing the relative weakness of the allied military force arrayed before him.

For those of us who were in Baghdad on the night the allies attacked a facility south of the city suspected of being part of Saddam's nuclear program, the Iraqi authorities displayed a highly sophisticated handling of the 150 Western journalists covering the crisis. Gone was the heavy-handedness of the Gulf War two years ago, when reporters were rigorously censored, closely controlled, and fed a solid diet of civilian casualties. This time scores of international networks were allowed to broadcast live during the attack and were taken on the night itself to the bombing sites - not only to the three civilian areas, hit when cruise missiles were knocked off course by anti-aircraft fire, but to the al-Nide plant itself, which thirty projectiles demolished.

The scenes at the Al-Rashid hotel, where a young Iraqi employee and a Jordanian guest were killed when a missile destroyed the lobby, could not have worked better for the regime, not least because the hotel was packed with several hundred Islamic delegates who will doubtless spread their invective against the U.S. with added vigor in mosques from Jakarta to Brooklyn. Some Iraqi officials could barely disguise their satisfaction at the publicity coup which was handed to them on a plate, most vividly during the televised visit by President Saddam to a hospital ward, where he was seen by millions offering his comfort to an injured German reporter whose face was badly lacerated by flying glass.

Only three days after the attack on Baghdad, President Saddam, wearing a navy blue V-neck pullover to soften the effect of his military uniform, presided over a meeting of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council to announce unilateral ceasefire as an inaugural olive branch to Bill Clinton. The move was intended not only as a final humiliation to George Bush, but also a gesture to the new President that compromise is possible.

Iraqi leaders in private discussions and public pronouncements have made it very clear that President Saddam is seeking a straightforward deal with the new Administration. In return for President Clinton's dropping his predecessor's policy of toppling the Iraqi leader, President Saddam would honor his commitments under UN resolutions. Baghdad is gambling that if the situation remains calm in the coming months, the UN will gradually ease sanctions against Iraq and alleviate the devastating effects of hyperinflation and the rapid decline of the Iraqi dinar, which has virtually wiped out the country's once thriving middle class.