Unleashing the Beast

214 / U NLEASHING THE B EAST

"Because Babylon was built in ancient times and was a great city, it must be a great city again in the time of our great leader, Saddam Hussein." According to Paul Lewis of the New York Times, the motivation for rebuilding Babylon was to strengthen Iraqi nationalism by appealing to history. It also portrayed Saddam in the eyes of his people as the new Nebuchadnezzar, a leader who eventually conquered the world in his day. After spending 100 million dollars, thousands of workers laid 60 million bricks along new walls in the new Babylon. Every six feet along the wall there is a brick with an inscription in Arabic saying, "The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar was reconstructed in the era of Saddam Hussein." After laying 60 million bricks, rebuilding gates, walls and palaces, the last Babylonian festival was held in 1988. The war with Iran had taken its toll on Iraq and the building program ceased. Instead, Saddam began placing hundreds of millions of dollars into his lavish palaces, scattered throughout the country. Saddam's invasion into Kuwait was not for oil or its oil deposits. Iraq has huge amounts of the world's reserves. The "spiritual" motive was to begin annexing the land that once belonged to ancient Babylon. It would have also given Iraq a much needed coastline. Even the name "Babylon" is constantly in the minds of Iraqis. In the early 90's, Saddam built a super gun with a 16-inch barrel that was 172 feet long. The gun was tested, and set a new world record by shooting a projectile 112 miles straight up. The super-gun was code-named Baby Babylon by the Iraqis.