Mad Social Scientist

Saddam's jailers have some interesting anecdotes:

But Mr. Hussein would occasionally provide startling comments and observations, they said, as when he spoke about his reasons for invading Kuwait in 1990, and precipitated the first gulf war.

Mr. Hussein told his interrogator on one occasion that a principal reason for invading was his belief that he needed to keep his army occupied.

Saddam solution for instability: invade a major oil producer in an unstable region of the world. Brilliant. (On a serious note, it does support the story that Saddam's weakpoint was always his military chain of command, which failed to keep him informed in 2003 about pretty much everything)

From his partial answers to questions about the recent war, intelligence officials said they came to believe that Mr. Hussein was surprised when the United States began its invasion in March 2003.

One official said that Mr. Hussein had implied that ambiguity over whether his government possessed illegal weapons "would keep the neighbors at bay, while the U.S. would be hung up in interminable debate at the U.N."

Looks like the Maxwell Smart defense strategy didn't work out. (Don't move, I have biological weapons. Okay, would you believe that I have hydrogen balloon trucks?)

Saddam really needed to follow Evil Overlord rule 61:

If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.

Instead, he didn't trust any advisers, and probably would have killed someone who pointed this out.

But it's really Saddam the parent that shines:

And in one curious session, an official said, he related how his son Uday had beaten to death someone who had annoyed him by playing music too loudly.

Mr. Hussein said that after the beating, he had Uday imprisoned in solitary confinement for a time to teach him a lesson.

Bad dictator's son! No dessert for you! But I suppose, as long as Uday is doing well, Saddam did his job as a father. Oh, wait...