Saddam an admirer of former US President Reagan? Damn straight. This fact and more have emerged from interviews with five Pennsylvania National Guard members assigned to Saddam’s guard contingent for nearly 10 months.
Saddam Hussein likes Doritos corn chips, hates Froot Loops, admires President Reagan, thinks Clinton was “OK” and considers both presidents Bush as “no good.” He talks a lot, worries about germs and insists he is still president of Iraq.Those and other details of the deposed Iraqi leader’s life in U.S. military custody appear in the July issue of GQ magazine, based on interviews with five Pennsylvania National Guard members who went to Iraq to fight in 2003 and instead were assigned to Saddam’s guard contingent for nearly 10 months.
Despite his harsh words for President Bush, he just wants to be his friend. No, really.
The GIs recalled that Saddam had harsh words for the Bushes, each of whom went to war against him.“The Bush father, son, no good,” Cpl. Jonathan “Paco” Reese, 22, of Millville, Pa., quotes Saddam as saying.Specialist Sean O’Shea, then 19, of Minooka, Pa., says Saddam later mellowed in that view. “Towards the end he was saying that he doesn’t hold any hard feelings and he just wanted to talk to (George W.) Bush, to make friends with him,” he told the magazine.
The story also reveals that some GIs have no luck.
The story says that once, when Saddam fell during his twice a week shower, “panic ensued. No one wanted him to be hurt while being guarded by Americans.” One GI had to help Saddam back to his cell, while another carried his underwear.
Hey, it could have been worse.
Despite his gruff exterior, and history as one of the most brutal murderers of the last century, Saddam is apparently quite the father figure.
Saddam was friendly toward his young guards and sometimes offered fatherly advice.When O’Shea told him he wasn’t married, Saddam “started telling me what to do,” recalls the soldier.“He was like, ‘you gotta find a good woman. Not too smart, not too dumb. Not too old, not too young. One that can cook and clean.”‘
(I guess Saddam could not find one woman who fulfilled all of these requirements – he married at least four).
Then he smiled, made what O’Shea interpreted as a “spanking” gesture, laughed and went back to doing his laundry in the sink.
And it seems that doing laundry is only part of Saddam’s obsession with cleanliness.
The soldiers also say Saddam was a “clean freak” who washed after shaking hands and used diaper wipes to clean meal trays, utensils and a table before eating. “He had germophobia or whatever you call it,” said Dawson.
Food-wise, Saddam ain’t no “Froot Loop” kind of guy.
The article says Saddam preferred Raisin Bran Crunch for breakfast, telling O’Shea, “no Froot Loops.” He ate fish and chicken but refused beef.For a time his favorite snack was Cheetos, and when that ran out, Saddam would “get grumpy,” the story says. One day, guards substituted Doritos corn chips, and Saddam forgot about Cheetos. “He’d eat a family size bag of Doritos in 10 minutes,” Dawson says.
And who says that he has no sense of humor?
The magazine says Saddam told his guards that when the Americans invaded Iraq in March 2003, he “tried to flee in a taxicab as the tanks were rolling in,” and U.S. planes struck the palace he was trying to reach instead of the one he was in. “Then he started laughing,” recalls Reese. “He goes, `America, they dumb. They bomb wrong palace.”‘
Funny guy.
