The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
The Cash Kingdom
by James Dunnigan
June 24, 2003
Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq longer than anyone else in the
past century, and he did it with fear, and liberal distribution of cash and
gifts. We don't usually think of cash as a means to ruling people, but Saddam
was quite clever at it, and apparently still is. Captured Baath party documents
indicate a plan was drawn up for continued fighting if Iraq were conquered.
Large caches of cash were established to provide rewards for those who killed
American soldiers or committed acts of sabotage against economic targets. Over a
billion dollars of cash and gold was found and recovered at the end of the war,
but it is thought that hundreds of millions of dollars are still out there under
the control of the Baath party. Saddam ran Iraq with a combination of
terror and bribes. His basic pitch was, "obey me and I won't kill you, and will
give you some money as well." During the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, Saddam maintained
the support of the people by making large cash payments to the families of Iraqi
soldiers killed fighting the Iranians. Saddam should have been in big trouble
during this war, as it was his idea to invade Iran in the first place, and it
was the Iranian counterattack, and demand for Saddam's head, that killed most
Iraqis lost in the war. But Saddam used money and fear to keep the lid on
resistance. He also rewarded military leaders who were successful, although most
were removed from their jobs after the war, lest their popularity and abilities
threaten Saddam's rule. After the the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990,
and the coalition counterattack in 1991, Saddam was in trouble again. He hauled
out the cash to buy the loyalty of tribes and groups who would support against
the Shia and Kurd rebels. The cash was also capable of bribing some of the
rebels to sit out the fight. Since 1991, cash has been used to keep the security
services and Republican Guard loyal. Unfortunately, the cash required to do this
came largely from the "Oil for Food" program. While the Kurds spent most of
their share of the Oil for Food money on food and public works, and prospered,
Iraqis suffered because most of their share went for bribes to keep Saddam in
power. You could see how this worked after American troops were in Iraq. Those
areas, largely Sunni tribes and cities, that were Saddam backers, were
noticeably more prosperous than the rest of Iraq. But now these
prosperous Sunnis have lost their main source of income. Sending out their young
men to earn a large cash payment for killing Americans, or sabotaging a
pipeline, is a prospect few can resist. But this will not go on forever, because
most of these young gunmen get killed when they encounter American troops.
Moreover, too many Iraqis are willing to provide information to the Americans,
and subsequent raids on Sunni Iraqis leads to the imprisonment of potential
attackers and seizure of their weapons. The Baath party leaders are getting
rounded up and the cash supplies taken. The Iraqi Baath party has few
friends in the region. But individual Arabs are coming to Iraq to "fight the
infidels." These Islamic radicals don't need cash encouragement, but they do
need to be fed and hidden, and this costs money. The Syrian Baath Party has been
at war with the Iraqi Baath Party for decades, but sees the survival of Baath in
Iraq as preferable to the establishment of an Iraqi democracy. The Syrians can
provide lots of sanctuary and a little cash. Some wealthy Saudis offer cash to
help expel infidels from the region.
The Sunni Arabs who have ruled Iraq,
without Saddam, for centuries, face destitution and retribution for as long as
they are out of power. The Sunnis look back to the 1920s, when a combination of
civil war and resistance to British rule enabled the Sunnis to regain power.
Back then, the Sunnis came out on top by cutting a deal with the British, at the
expense of the majority Shia and Kurds. The Sunnis see a similar opportunity as
their main chance to regain control of the country. Keep Iraq poor, armed, angry
and fighting and cash, Sunni cash, will eventually win out. It's not known
exactly how much cash the Sunnis have, but Saddam is thought to have at least
ten billion dollars in assets outside of Iraq, and several billion dollars in
cash inside Iraq. Coalition forces are hunting for that money, especially since
cash is turning out to be Saddam's ultimate weapon.
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