For those who might remember the news reporting on the capture, trial, and execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the details involving his brutality seemed to focus on two sets of events. The CNN reported invasion of Kuwait in August of 1990 by Hussein's troops is still burned into the minds of many Gen Xers, and the description of how he ordered chemical weapons attacks against the Kurds shook us all to our core.
Without a doubt, those two decisions by Hussein were enough to bring him to trial for crimes against humanity, including murder and torture (via Fox News). Factor in these events with the fact that Hussein also drove Iraq to financial ruin following an unnecessary war against neighboring Iran from 1980 to 1988 (via Britannica), and you have the perfect outline for what not to do if you have unbridled control over a people .
Unfortunately, Hussein had a long history of seizing and maintaining power through extreme violence. Hussein's summary of terror included imprisoning and murdering suspected political opponents, razing entire villages where he suspected adversaries lurked, and destroying the very lands upon which his own subjects made their livelihoods (via ABC News).
While his hanging on December 30, 2006, officially put an end to his grip on Iraq, it didn't even begin to rectify the countless acts of horror he committed against his own countrymen and women.
Saddam Hussein's first moves toward genocide involved a sub-sect of Shi'a Muslims known as the Fayli. This group inhabited small villages in the Zagros mountain range, which sits on the border between Iraq and Iran (via PBS). Hussein's political party, the Ba'athists, regarded the Fayli people as Iranians. As Hussein was beginning to wage an eight-year-long war with Iran, he set out to systematically eliminate anyone he considered Iranian (or allies of the Iranians) within his own borders (via ABC News). The Fayli were the first such group Hussein attempted to "cleanse."