Saddam Hussein Fell, So Violence in Iraq Escalated

When US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Adel Amer celebrated what he thought marked the end of two decades of war and sanctions isolation that brought Iraq and its people to their knees.

“I was dancing like crazy and I couldn’t believe Saddam was gone. I felt like a bird released from a cage,” said Amer.

But it turned out to be just the beginning of another era of conflict and chaos that saw an insurgency, rising Islamist violence and sectarian strife that deepened the suffering of Amer, now 63, and his family.

Amer’s troubles began long before the US-led invasion that began on March 20, 2003. He deserted from the army during Saddam’s 1980s war with Iran, which cost a million lives.

“I was fed up with facing death all the time and seeing my friends killed or maimed by heavy Iranian bombing all the time,” Amer said.

“I told myself it was time to run away from the Army. I knew I would be executed if caught, but staying alive was worth it and I did it. That’s why I’m alive today,” said the white-bearded man, who looks weak and tired after a lifetime of hard work.

Amer ran away from his family home in a rural area near the Baghdad airport to live in an orchard owned by his brother-in-law. He grew a long beard and worked as a farmer to avoid detection by Saddam’s security forces.

He took another risk in 1990-1991, when Saddam’s forces invaded neighboring Kuwait, a move that turned Iraq into an international pariah.

Amer avoided military service in the seven months of Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait, even after Saddam issued an edict that defectors would have part of their ears cut off or an X mark branded on their foreheads.

He was hated by his former Army buddies and most of the residents of his neighborhood, although no one would turn him in because they knew he would face execution.

When Saddam’s long dictatorship ended in 2003, Amer threw an extravagant party at his home. He would never again have to flee for his life now that American troops had taken control of the country, he thought.

Then-US President George W. Bush and his generals promised to deliver a strong democracy and a thriving economy – a stark contrast to Saddam’s regime when innocent people were tortured and killed and billions of petrodollars were wasted.

Instead, more violence ensued. Al Qaeda launched a devastating insurgency, dropping bombs and beheading people. Soon Iraq would be embroiled in a sectarian civil war in 2006-2008, mostly between Sunnis and Shias. Corpses could be seen floating in rivers.

Amer and millions of others would once again live in fear as Sunni militant groups and Shi’ite militias, many backed by regional power Iran, terrorized Iraqis and fought US troops.

Amer said he was still determined to leave Iraq, two decades after US and Iraqi troops toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad.

“I was in hiding under Saddam, and now I’m in hiding again,” he said. “Before the invasion, there was only one Saddam. Today there are many more.”