Uday and Qusay Saddam Hussein

摘要

When Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq in 1979, his elder son Uday was 15 and his second son Qusay was 13. According to Uday, the two boys were ordered by their father to watch the execution of several dozen government officials accused of being disloyal to the regime. Uday said that he killed a number of the officials himself. If the father is eventually captured and survives to reminisce about his past life, as sometimes happens even to dictators, he may explain why he exposed his sons to this dreadful sight. But, lacking that personal account, it is reasonable to speculate that he wanted to blood them. This was the reality of life in Iraq from now on, he was saying. By tooth and claw, the father had gained power, and all the advantages that went with it, and to hold on to it there should be no room for sentiment. Of the dictators who abounded in the 20th century, the one Mr Hussein most admired was Stalin, who was totally ruthless, achieved a kind of divine status and died in his own bed.