BEIRUT -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein rang in the new year with the largest military parade Baghdad had ever seen. Over 1,000 tanks rumbled through the capital. According to the opposition Iraqi National Congress, they were equipped with new engines and cooling systems, imported from Ukraine in defiance of international sanctions. There were new ground-to-ground and surface-to-air missiles. Some 60 helicopters took part, evidence of a greatly increased availability of spare parts and servicing capability.
Hussein himself, cigar in one hand, Brno rifle in the other, presided over the spectacle. When new, U.N.-prohibited missiles passed by, together with the chemical unit, he became particularly exuberant, firing his Brno at a much faster pace, while the TV commentator exulted, "These are the ones we rained down on the Jews."
That was a reference to the 37 Scud missiles that Iraq unleashed on Israel during the Persian Gulf War -- the so-called Desert Storm, or Mother of Battles in official Iraqi parlance -- that began 10 years ago this week, with the heaviest and most sustained aerial bombardment since World War II. It was not the official objective of the 500,000-man, U.S.-led military coalition to bring Hussein down, only to liberate Kuwait. Even so, then U.S. President George Bush could scarcely have imagined that Hussein would still be there, 10 years on, when his son entered the White House, the fifth U.S. president Hussein has dealt with since he usurped power in 1979.