Saddam's courtroom remark reignites debate over regime's internal collapse

WASHINGTON, United States — A statement made by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during his trial has drawn renewed attention to the period leading up to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. According to the Turkish commentary, Hussein told the court that without America neither his accuser nor his father could have brought him to the dock, a line that openly acknowledges Washington's role in toppling his government while overlooking the regime's own policy failures that paved the way for intervention. The column also points to the fate of state-issued newspapers during the former regime, noting that large print runs were returned unsold, a sign of public disengagement from the government. Officials quoted in the piece said the papers' content and headlines were not the issue, but that the public had lost confidence in the ruling authority. To assess the circulation problem, the regime brought in Jordanian media expert Fouad Hussein, whose review later became a reference point for describing the leadership's disconnect from ordinary Iraqis. When the 2003 military intervention dismantled the coercive apparatus that had sustained the regime, it became clear that it lacked any genuine social base. Saddam's repeated hard-edged rhetoric toward major powers, the commentary argues, was at odds with his lack of solid domestic support. His courtroom words, it concludes, reflected the regime's unwillingness to accept the internal causes of its own collapse.