This is Part II in a continuing series by my friend "Mike", a Navy SEAL who spent most of the last couple of years in Iraq as both an active-duty participant and a private contractor. "Mike" explains the war in Iraq to his young sons, and has graciously allowed me to share his letters with you. "Mike" will appear on the Northern Alliance Radio Network today to discuss his experiences and the situation in Iraq. The show starts at noon CT.

IRAQ PICTURE LETTER TO MY SON
PART 2. THE EVIL RULER OF IRAQ

Do you know the name of the bad man who ruled Iraq until last year? The US Army just captured him on December 13, 2003, and he is going on trial in a few weeks.

That’s right, his name is Saddam Hussein. He put his face on all of the paper money in Iraq which they call ‘Dinar.’ Saddam Hussein had trillions of Dinar, which he got by taking money from what little his people earned (taxes) and by illegally selling oil and other things. He spent huge amounts of the money in Iraq to build palaces for himself. Germany helped Saddam build more than 400 palaces and more than 70 of them were called ‘Presidential’ Palaces just for him.

Many of palaces are now on military bases. Daddy travels to some of them to pick up mail and supplies depending on where he is working. Here are just a few of the palaces:

While Saddam and his family were living in palaces, most other Iraqis lived in poverty. Poverty means they didn’t have enough money to eat healthy food or live in a safe house.
For example teachers made less than $3.00 a month (in Dinar) when Saddam was in power. Now Iraq teachers make several hundred dollars per month and it is getting better and better.

Saddam Hussein was very cruel to his people and his son Qusay was even more evil and cruel to the people in Iraq. They tortured and murdered many thousands of Iraqis.

There is a prison in Iraq called Abu Ghraib which is still in use today. Iraqis who were sent to that prison have suffered some bad things. The prisoners we keep there now are treated in an extremely fair way, even if they are accused of really bad things. But when Saddam Hussein was in power he ordered the torture and killing of many people even if they were good.

This man was cut deeply many times while he was tied up and nearly died at Abu Ghraib:

This man said he was burned at Abu Ghraib and also came close to death.

These men were the lucky ones. Many worse things happened at Abu Ghraib and other places in Iraq, even to women and children. But we don’t need to talk about or see such things until you are much older. We should be very thankful that we were born in the USA.

Now you will learn about some of the things Daddy discovered about the evil plans this crazy man Saddam Hussein had for the world outside Iraq.

Do you remember when I wrote the picture letter to your class about the ruins of the ancient City of Babylon and the new Babylon built by Saddam Hussein? Look on the map of Iraq and see if you can find it again and see what famous river runs through it. That’s right, it is the Euphrates River, one of the oldest in the World.

Almost 3000 years ago Babylon was the capitol of an ancient civilization called Babylonia. When you study history and read the Bible you will learn about a famous Babylonian ruler with a hard name to pronounce. Can you say ‘Nebuchadnezzar’?

Well Saddam Hussein restored the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar for a very symbolic reason. Saddam Hussein told some Iraqi people and other Arabs who came to visit that he was actually the re-incarnation of Nebuchadnezzar which means he is the same person born again (which of course is impossible).

Daddy saw this stone carving at the Presidential Palace in Babylon. Saddam’s face is in the middle and behind him his supposed to be his old self, King Nebuchadnezzar.

Do you know why Saddam would want certain Arab people to believe something crazy like he is the re-incarnation of Nebuchadnezzar? It is because he bragged to people that he would do the same things that the real King Nebuchadnezzar did again in our time.

You see the real Nebuchadnezzar conquered many neighboring lands and one of them was the nation of Israel which is the homeland of the Jewish people. Many years before the time of Christ, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, claimed the land for Babylonia, killed many Jews and forced the rest of them to leave.

70 years later the Jewish people came back to Israel after the fall of Babylonia. But they didn’t stay very long because they were again forced to leave their homeland by people called Persians. After more than 2,000 years of exile, the Jewish people were given their homeland back. Israel became a nation again right after World War II which was the war that your Grandpa fought in. Some people want to take the Land of Israel away from the Jews again. Saddam Hussein was one who boasted to others about doing this.

Daddy saw many things in Iraq that confirmed Saddam Hussein’s intentions to conquer other people especially Jewish people. Look at this chair that this American solider is sitting on which we found in Al Faw Palace in Baghdad. Coalition soldiers, who help us, like to get their picture taken sitting on this chair too. Even Daddy got his picture taken there. But that was before he learned about the writing on it.


You see, under Saddam Hussein, only people who wanted to hurt Jewish people would sit in the chair. Do you see the large Arabic letters on the back? Across the top it says, “Victory from Allah and soon we will again conquer Jerusalem.” And on both sides, up and down, it says, “Jerusalem is ours.”

There is another thing that Saddam Hussein copied from Nebuchadnezzar. On almost every brick from the original Palace of Nebuchadnezzar one could find his name engraved. Well, Saddam Hussein made sure to leave his initials on places in every palace that he made as well. Saddam also had many statues made of himself in Babylonian dress like Nebuchadnezzar. And he challenged his military to be brave warriors and be ready to die for him, which many did.

But when we finally caught Saddam Hussein he wasn’t very brave. He was found hiding in a hole with a loaded gun and he begged for mercy.

Because our country believes in justice, even for suspected criminals, he was not shot to death. Instead he was arrested and will stand trial for his crimes in front of the Free people of Iraq.

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