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She threw herself in front of a bus and failed to abort Saddam and kill herself. The Jewish neighbors intervened and nursed the despondent woman back to health to save future Saddam, enemy of Jews. The seeds which produce a tyrant and dictator, like the seeds which generate other abnormal aberrations are planted in the early life of the individual. Saddam (his first name can be translated as "he who confronts") was born in April 1937 to an impoverished village family in the Tikrit region, north of Baghdad . Mr. Hussein's father died, probably of cancer, in the fourth month of his mother's pregnancy with Saddam. Mr. Hussein's 12-year-old brother died, also of cancer, a few months later. She in a state of much distress, she attempted suicide. Before Saddam's birth, she would pull out clumps of her hair and pummel her pregnant abdomen with her fists. In the Wall Street Journal article she is quoted as having said that she did not want her baby and asking "after losing my husband and child, what good can this baby do me?" Even Saddam Hussein's official biography recounts his unhappy childhood. The trauma left her such that she tried to throw herself in front of a bus and failed to abort Saddam and kill herself. The Jewish neighbors intervened and nursed the despondent woman back to health -- in effect saving the life of the future dictator Saddam. A neighboring Jewish family, according to Baram, intervened and saved Saddam's life. (Baram says that family, who now live in Tel Aviv, refuse to be identified because they are afraid of being blamed for allowing Saddam to be born.) Israeli historian Amatzia Baram 64, a professor at the University of Haifa began an intense personal study, creating an extensive Hussein family tree going back 11 generations, and tracking down dozens of close sources, including Saddam's childhood neighbors from the village of Tikrit and their Baghdadi cousins -- Jews now living in Israel who tell a story of a child with a tragic beginning. When Saddam was born, her mother would have nothing to do with him and sent him away to an uncle. At 3 Mr. Hussein was reunited with his mother after she had married a distant relative, but he was then physically and psychologically abused by his new stepfather. He has spoken bitterly of being mistreated by a stepfather, who kept him from school, forced him to herd the family sheep and insulted him as the son of a dog. "Even after Saddam became the strongman in Iraq , and all the family lived in tremendous affluence, Saddam's stepfather was still living in a mud hut in the tiny old dusty village of Uja ," says Baram. He left his home at age 10 to live with Khairullah Tulfah, an uncle who was the main adult influence of Saddam's childhood. Tulfah hated Britain for its rule of Iraq from 1917 to 1932, and he evinced broader xenophobia, as in his authorship of pamphlet entitled, "Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews and Flies." Another inspiration to Saddam was Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, who toppled his country's British-installed monarchy in 1952, when Saddam was 15, and who seized the Suez Canal from Britain four years later. At age 20, Saddam, who had struggled through junior high school and reportedly led a street gang of Tikritis, began his career in gunbarrel politics to join Baath (Renaissance) Party. Saddam, said Post, has a "paranoid orientation. . . . He is ready for retaliation and, not without reason, sees himself as surrounded by enemies. But he ignores his own role in creating those enemies." Dr. Eliezer Witzlum, a Jerusalem psychiatrist believes that Saddam Hussein "may never have developed basic trust in other people. You see it in abused children in clinical situations," "So that would produce in psychoanalytic terms what we call 'the wounded self,' Dr. Post said. "Most people with that kind of background would be highly

ineffective as adults and be faltering, insecure human beings." Perhaps most important, Dr. Post says, is that Mr. Hussein is a "judicious political calculator," not a madman. Osama and Kim In his view, the world's most dangerous leaders are often malignant narcissists, a category that he says he thinks includes Osama bin Laden, Kim Jong Il of North Korea and Hitler. These leaders share four qualities, Dr. Post said: extreme self-absorption, paranoia, no constraints of conscience and a willingness to use whatever means necessary to accomplish goals. They have little empathy for the pain and suffering of their own people, Dr. Post said, but they also can't empathize with their enemies, a critical vulnerability in that "it's very important as an effective leader to get into the mind of your adversaries."

Mr. Osama Bin Laden in particular has little empathy for others, Dr. Post said, "and is really consumed with being God's prophet on earth." Mr. Kim, who Dr. Post says is consumed by self-doubt because he lives in the enormous shadow of his father, the founding leader of North Korea , once, punished a subordinate who displeased him by sending him home naked. As for Mr. Hussein, Dr. Post says that he is not irrational and is in fact entirely predictable and over three decades in power "worked the international. Saddam's personality cult reflected his efforts to appeal to the various elements in Iraqi society. He appeared in the costumes of the Bedouin, the traditional clothes of the Iraqi peasant (which he essentially wore during his childhood), and even Kurdish clothing, but also appeared in Western suits, and as a devout Muslim Details as to Saddam's childhood are not well-known and hard to come by, but some information regarding a brutal father has surfaced, and parallels between Saddam's childhood, Zhirinovsky of Russia and Adolph Hitler's are easy to make. Vladimir Zhirinovsky Like Adolf Hitler goal of Vladimir Zhirinovsky is also to remap Europe in order to eliminate centuries, old injustices. And like Hitler he advocates the use of military power to those ends. In his autobiography, The Final March South, he writes that ". . .life itself forced me to suffer from the very day, from the moment, from the instant of my birth." He complained that due to his father's early death, his mother had to work long hours and as a result, no time or energy was expended on him. "I was always in the way. . . I was somehow superfluous," he writes. Unable to make friends with either sex, he writes that he felt more and more isolated. It was this unhappiness, this bitterness, which drove him to enter politics. But a tyrant can neither exist nor survive in isolation. A collective sense of injustice among co-conspirators must necessarily exist. As had Hitler, Zhirinovsky also has his supporters and bullies who also suffered from deprived childhoods and are grateful to join with him in seeking revenge. As of yet Zhirinovsky has not achieved political control. One tyrant, who has already done so, with lamentable results, is Saddam Hussein of Iraq . HITLER Both Saddam and Hitler were brutally beaten as a matter of course in day-to-day life. Saddam's subsequent merge with the Baathist party, which took over the Republic of Iraq on February 8, 1963 , is quite similar to Hitler's creation of the Nazi Party which evolved into The Third Reich.

Adolf Hitler's father Alois was an illegitimate child. He was suspected of being the son of a Jewish merchant from Graz because his mother, Maria Schickelgruber, became pregnant when she was in his domestic employ. For him, the opprobrium of being both illegitimate and of Jewish descent was a source of unbearable shame. But there was no way he could rid himself of this humiliation. The easiest way for him to vent his pent-up resentment was to take it out on his son Adolf in the form of regular, merciless floggings. In the entire history of anti-Semitism and persecution of the Jews, no other ruler had ever hit upon the idea that, on pain of death, every citizen in his country must provide proof of non-Jewish descent extending back to the third generation. This was Hitler's OWN PERSONAL BRAND OF MANIA. And it is traceable to the insecurity of his existence in his own family, the insecurity of a child constantly living under the threat of violence and humiliation. Later millions were to forfeit their lives so that this child - now a childless adult - could avenge himself by unconsciously projecting the grim scenario of his childhood onto the political stage. STALIN According to the official version, his father Vissarion was a cobbler. He opened his own shop, but quickly went bankrupt, forcing him to work in a shoe factory in Tiflis. (Archer 11) Rarely seeing his family and drinking heavily, Vissarion often beat his wife and small son. One of Stalin's friends from childhood wrote, "Those undeserved and fearful beatings made the boy as hard and heartless as his father." The same friend also wrote that he never saw him cry Another of his childhood friends, Iremshvili, felt that the beatings by Stalin's father gave him the hatred of authority. He also said that anyone with power over others reminded Stalin of his father's cruelty. Stalin had broken his arm several times over his life. There have been reports of Stalin having one arm shorter than the other -----------------------Please pardon the length of this thread's beginning post, but I found my study of this subject so interesting that I am providing my take on what I found out. This is my own personal study, not some borrowed report here. Reading this completely through I think is worth it. To the administrators of this forum, please bear with me here as I think this subject deserves some attention in light of today's politics. Sorry for the lengthy beginning. I promise not to make a habit of this. Rating the worst dictators in history would be a debate and a subject by itself. I've selected the following: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, and Saddam Hussein. There are plenty more to choose from. Hussein and Castro were included even though they are probably not be as bad as some others, but I think that they qualify for the list because they are bad guys, and dictators, and they are fresh in our minds as being part of current history. This was a study of the childhood environments, conditions, and personality types, and it turned out from my research that there were indeed common characteristics and environments that produced such dictators, from their childhood on. I've categorized these factors as follows: 1 - Dysfunctional family and troubled childhood that extends into adulthood. This includes troubled spousal relationships and other relationships as adults. 2 - Rejection and/or hate for religious belief, sometimes despite training as a child. As they grow into adulthood, they have a hatred or unresolved resentment toward certain groups, races, or religion. 3 - They perceive injustice from childhood and develop a burning desire to dominate, gain power, and right the wrongs toward society and to them as they view it. Typically there is a hate for business and private enterprise, as it is viewed as unfair and the cause of much injustice and suffering, and religion is also viewed as a failure, so government and they are the hope of righting the wrongs and creating their vision of utopia on earth.

I've summarized the main points of each of their lives to illustrate the above. I've tried to capture the main point without including much detail. Obviously, there is much more supporting information available for anyone wishing to research the subjects. HITLER - Hitler's mother was his father's third wife and 23 years younger than his father. Hitler's father was very strict and evidently beat Adolph. He did okay in early years of school, but later quit trying, did poorly, and portrayed a generally rebellious attitude. He tried being an artist, was rejected by art schools, and never excelled at anything much until becoming involved in political movements. As an adult, he was a womanizer, with Eva Braun becoming his main girlfriend and eventually his wife. She once attempted suicide in jealosy of the other women in his life. Although described in primary school as deeply religious and even a prospect to become a monk, he obviously made a U-turn by the time he was an adult. He acquired a hatred for Jews and other groups that he felt did not fit in with his scheme of developing a superior race, which was based on evolutionary theory known as "eugenics," an idea founded by Charles Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton. STALIN - Stalin was his mother's 4th child in less than 4 years, with the previous 3 dying. Stalin contracted smallpox at the age of seven, survived, but the scarring caused other kids to call him "pocky." Stalin was expelled from school once. A half brother had experienced prison time. Stalin himself was of course later arrested several times for his political activities. Included in Stalin's troubled personal life, Stalin's second wife committed suicide following an argument with Stalin during a party, and left him a scathing personal note. Stalin's mother was deeply religious and sent Joseph to a local church school. Later, he attended a theological seminary, but while there began his involvement into his revolutionary activities and organizations. He studied the works of Charles Darwin, became an atheist, and one could say his approach to life and political power followed the "survival of the fittest" theory. MAO TSE-TUNG - Mao was a rebellious teenager; his father wanted him to be a farmer as he was, but Mao rebelled and left home at age 13 for more advanced schools. A look at Mao as an adult shows a very demanding personality, who had several wives and mistresses and displayed abnormal personal traits. Mao could be described as non-religious to atheistic. His faith was completely placed in the state, and as the leader of the state, he was the final arbitor of all things for everyone, bar none, so religion was highly suppressed, disallowed, or eliminated from public life. POL POT - Childhood not well documented, but for much of the time, did not live with his parents. At the early age of six, he was sent to the city for school and later to a boarding school. He was apparently only a mediocre student and was failed and held back from advancement at least once. He did win a scholarship to study radio engineering in Paris, but never proceeded with it, and instead pursued his political activities. Pol Pot's first wife spent much time in a hospital due to some mental condition. His second wife was about 30 years younger than him. Pol Pot himself was a paranoid personality, understandable given his elimination of enemies and political opponents. At one point in his childhood, his parents sent him to a large Buddhist monastery. He also attended a Catholic primary school, but there is no evidence he had any religious belief later in life. In fact, he along with the Kmer Rouge aggessively attempted to stamp out any opposition to his regime, his plan for utopia, including any religion. CASTRO - Fidel was an illegitimate son of a sugar plantation owner, was rebellious in childhood, and at only 13 years old, he helped organize a strike of sugar workers against his own father's plantation. A former classmate described him as "different," and was called "loco" by some. He had an interest in politics and read alot about Stalin, Napoleon, and Mussolini. His first marriage did not go well, and a custody dispute spurred him to kidnap his son from his divorced wife so that he could be raised as a model communist (interesting parallel with the Elian Gonzales case). An illegitimate daughter of Castro fled Cuba and is one of his most avid opponents. Castro threatened his parents that he would burn the house down if they wouldn't send him to school, so Fidel attended a Jesuit boarding school in Havana. Later in life, he was described as indifferent to religion and actually was excommunicated by the Catholic Church for political acts against Cuban priests. HUSSEIN - Hussein was born into a family in a small village and lived in a mud hut. Not much is known, but his father either died or abandoned the family. His step-father turned out to be abusive and a thief. At age 10, Hussein moved in with his mother's brother. Poor school grades hindered him getting into a military academy, and he then became involved in radical movements. The shadowy personal life of Hussein as an adult is no secret. He had a wife that was apparently selected by parents when he was young, but had mistresses, one of which came to be regarded as his "second wife," even though perhaps not officially with a marriage certificate. Under Hussein's rule, any religions or leaders that defied his absolute rule were denied rights, imprisoned, or eliminated.

One observation I would like to make here. Such personalities can be found in abundance in every culture, but obviously there must be conditions whereby such people can gain an audience and eventually gain political power. I think such potential dictators with their inherent politics can only gain traction in a society that also has more of a preponderence of the mindset similar to that of the potential dictator. This mindset would include a general feeling of failure and personal feeling of powerlessness, unfairness, and resentment, coupled with an increased lack of faith in God or religion. Such a collective mindset then takes on an increased hope that "government" can right the wrongs and create some kind of system that is more fair. Business and free enterprise becomes more demonized and viewed more as unfair, thus something needs to be done to correct it. An important component in this cultural mindset is the condition of the family unit, whereby children grow up in happy, balanced conditions, so that they can grow into being happy adults without some axe to grind, and they are happy to work and bear the fruits of their own labors. Also a belief in God rather than a belief in government is important in keeping a culture away from dictators, at least that has been true for the first 200 years of this country. If too many people in our culture begin to have more axes to grind, then the seeds of some ruthless dictator or government gaining traction becomes a very real danger. What prompted my little study was the current political climate, with many extremists rejecting the norm of past generations, even going so far as leftist liberals calling George Bush a Nazi. It aroused a curiosity to see if history had shown certain personality types to be more prone to becoming ruthless dictators if they gained power. Of course, I think Bush being compared to Hitler is utterly preposterous and in fact I think the opposite political scenario is more likely, and I think my study into the subject strongly supports my view. It is my firm belief that the extreme leftist mindset presents by far the most dangerous fertile ground to produce another ruthless dictator. It is the unhinged personalities with dysfunctional backgrounds, commonly with poor and immoral personal relationships, coupled with a lack of religious faith, then add to this an acquired strong belief that government can and should solve all problems, perhaps even creating some kind of utopia. As I've said before, the dangerous dictators have big axes to grind. And when I say a lack of religious faith, I would include the Osama Bin Ladens of the world and perhaps even certain hardline Muslim rulers because they may appear to use religion, but their true faith is in a governments power, not God. Some people may not be truly religious at all, but may want to appear to be religious in order to fool and use other people. Usually the nature of their own personal lives betray their true natures. One final observation. I would assert here that when people vote for a candidate, a look at their "personal" lives, their family relationships, their moral beliefs, is not only good and proper, but it is paramount to making good choices in our leaders. It is at least as important as their public stances on issues, probably more so. Usually one follows the other, but not always. The troubling part to this subject is when cultural morality is on the downward slide and families are increasingly dysfunctional, the risk of electing dysfunctional and dangerous personalities increases accordingly.

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