The Fall Of Saddam Hussein: What does it mean?
Most Arab people in the Middle East had looked upon Saddam Hussein as the last figure of defiance against the West almost as if he were a hero. Some had seen him as a leader in the Arab world and one who seemed to look in face of Western aggression and almost laugh daring to defy them at every turn. Now, that the "hero" has been defeated some Arabs are asking many questions and wondering. What could be the biggest question is how did Saddam get defeated so quickly and so easily by Coalition forces? Why did it seem that Hussein just gave up the fight? Finally, what effects did the war have on the countries surrounding Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait?
Saddam Hussein was a leader who ruled his people by imposing fear upon them. Beatings, torture and murder were the ways he kept the Iraqi people in line and in his control and as a result, this brought many of his own people to vehemently dislike him. So how much resistance is one willing to give someone who is coming into his or her country, albeit by force, to eliminate such a hated ruler? Obviously not much resistance as we saw during the war. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of hard fighting but radical Hussein loyalists did most of that while the soldiers of the regular Iraqi Army and even some Republican Guard soldiers ran. When American soldiers entered the capital of Baghdad, they were welcomed by crowds of people who were singing the praises of the fall of Saddam Hussein. So the answer to the first question "How did Saddam get defeated so quickly and so easily by Coalition forces" is two-fold. He was toppled by outstanding military might and the lack of desire by his own people to defend his government.
Therein lies the answer to the second question "Why did it seem that Hussein just gave up?" In all reality Saddam Hussein did not give up the fight himself or so it appears that way. His people gave up for him and thus opened a path that would lead the Coalition forces straight to his ouster and the end of his regime. The messages that Saddam Hussein was putting out called for his people to resist the invasion and so it seems that he was eager to fight the invasion but too few listened to his words and acted on them. Now Saddam's regime is gone, wiped away, and the man himself is either dead or on the run. The era of Saddam Hussein's rule is over.
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