This is the first post of the IRAQ (Iraq, Reasonable Answers for
our Questions) series of blog posts. It's about Iraq during
Saddam Hussein's regime. I think this may help as an
intruduction in order to understand the background of what is
going on in Iraq now. In 1958, a year after Saddam Hussein had
joined the Ba'ath party, which was founded by Michel Aflaq in
1947, army officers led by General Abdul Karim Qassim overthrew
Faisal II of Iraq. The Ba'athists opposed the new government,
and in 1959, Saddam was involved in the attempted United States-
backed plot to assassinate Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim. He
was sentenced to death in absentia. Saddam studied law at the
Cairo University during his exile. Later on in 1976, Saddam rose
to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces. He rapidly
became the strongman of the government. At the time Saddam was
considered an enemy of communism and radical Islamism. Saddam
was integral to U.S. policy in the region, a policy which sought
to weaken the influenc