Saddam cast Iraq into a dark era of repression and wars

Saddam Hussein has taken an advanced and powerful nation and plunged it into a dark era of two devastating wars and 12 years of misery under UN sanctions.

The Iraqi dictator’s brinkmanship cost his people dearly in its 1980-88 war with Iran and the 1991 Gulf War that all but wiped out his once-formidable army.