Iraq: Seeds of Destruction

By cracking down hard on the riots that erupted throughout his country in the wake of the war's humiliating conclusion, Saddam may be sowing trouble for himself

To listen to young Jabar and Hussein, privates in the Iraqi army, was to know the story of their country last week. A bag of spoiled dates -- "food for cattle," Hussein called it -- was their only sustenance as they plodded down a rain-sodden highway littered with ravaged tanks in southern Iraq. They had come from Basra, where a popular uprising against Saddam Hussein's government was under way. At one point in the fighting, Jabar and Hussein shed their uniforms and joined the revolt, but they grew fainthearted when loyalist troops began shelling rebel positions. "We are for the people,"...

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