"Inside of him, he was a shaky personality. A failed human being, an ignorant human being, he was an enemy to the people closest to him. This means he executes anyone."
-Sabah Khodada, former Iraqi Army general
Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi tyrant whose Republican Guard not only slaughtered his enemies, but his own people.
v.s. Pol Pot, the Cambodian dictator whose Khmer Rouge guerrillas committed genocide on a quarter of the country's population.
Stats
Age- 50 [1983-1984- height of the Iraq-Iran War]
Height- 6'2"
Weight- 215 lbs.
Reign- 1973-2003
History
Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937 in Al-Awja, Iraq to a family of shepherds. Even at a young age, he showed aggressive behavior by killing one of his cousins at the age of 17. He joined the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party in 1957 at the age of twenty and gained popularity for attempting to assassinate Present Qaseem of Iraq and other similar coups. This act helped him gradually rose through the ranks to become President of Iraq in July 1979. Within days of coming to power, Hussein had 68 members of his own party arrested for "disloyalty", with 22 sentenced to death and executed by firing squad. By the end of the month, hundreds of high-ranking Ba'ath Party members had been executed.
At the same time in neighboring Iran, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution, giving way to an Islamic republic led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Saddam, who already had a bitter enmity with Khomeini, feared that radical Islamic ideas- hostile to his secular rule- were rapidly spreading in his own country among the majority Shiite population (Hussein himself was a Sunni Muslim). This led to the invasion of Iran and the eight-year long Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). Despite Iraq's use of chemical weapons, the war ended in a stalemate and cost Iraq billions of dollars. Following the war, Hussein ordered the Halabja poison gas attack, wiping out between 3,200 and 5,000 Iraqi Kurds.
On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded its wealthy neighbor Kuwait, sparking the Persian Gulf War. Although originally Saddam's ally, the US sided with their allies of Kuwait and liberated the country from Saddam's government. After the war the US would denounce Iraq and Saddam repeatedly for being a rouge nation and accusing Saddam of supporting terrorism (which has yet to be prooven).
Saddam Hussein remained in power until the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, when he was captured in December. He was put on trial for crimes against humanity, was convicted on November 5, 2006, and hanged on December 30. Despite the fall of this dictator, the US invasion of Iraq was controversial as the invasion was technically illegal- based on the US ideas (later proven false) that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction and was supporting Al-Qaeda.
Weapons
Simulated Battle
Saddam Hussein
Pol Pot
Inside a war-torn Iraqi city, Saddam Hussein sits in his office looking over paperwork while 3 Republican Guard soldiers stand watch outside his building at a checkpoint. Outside, 4 armed Khmer Rouge soldiers run in, hiding behind building and pillar cover. One Khmer Rouge takes out his stick grenade and lobs it at the guardhouse. The grenade explodes, killing two soldiers and knocking down the third, who quickly recovers. 
Both Hussein and his bodyguard are alerted to explosion as they both exit the office to see the commotion.
Back outside, a firefight starts between the last Republican guard and the Khmer Rouge rebels. The Iraqi soldier, who has taken refuge in the doorway of the office building, takes his RGD-5 grenade and lobs it to the pillars, killing at least one Cambodian insurgent and stunning another to his knees.
Both Hussein and his bodyguard burst from a second-story balcony and join the fray, shooting and killing the Khmer Rouge before he can get back to his feet. The bodyguard stops for a minute to reload a fresh magazine into his RPK machine gun as Pol Pot enters the scene and takes the dead rebel's RPD machine gun and fires at the balcony. Under heavy fire and out gunned, Saddam calls for a retreat as he, his bodyguard, and the last checkpoint guard fall back inside the building. Pol Pot gives the RPD to one of his soldiers.
Pol Pot and his remaining Khmer Rouge cross the street and are about to raid the building when Saddam's motorcade comes veering around the corner. Pol Pot and two of his men quickly head him off and fire on the automobile, with Pol Pot's Tokarev shooting the driver in the face and killing him. The Khmer Rouge forces dive out of the way as the motorcade speeds ahead uncontrollably and crashes into the side of a house. Saddam and his bodyguard quickly exit the vehicle as one Khmer Rouge rebel fires at it with his RPD, shooting the gas tank and exploding the vehicle. The three Khmer Rouge are knocked down by the blast, but because of their cover, are unharmed. The Khmer Rouge moves in with his gun raised, inspecting the flaming wreckage to see the driver and his mortal wound. The last Republican Guard pops out of the doorway of the building he entered and fires at the rebel, forcing him to regroup behind cover with Pol Pot and the other rebel, who return fire. The RPD Khmer Rouge stands up to fire at the guard, but is shot down by Saddam who emerges from the second-story window, firing his Browning pistol.
Saddam's bodyguard finishes the last of his RPK ammo and quickly draws his Browning while withdrawing into the safety of the building. Pol Pot and his remaining soldier then move on to the building, Tokarevs at the ready with Pol Pot quickly pointing his upward and shooting. In the alley behind the building, the bodyguard waits for the Khmer Rouge forces to show themselves. The Khmer Rouge rebel soon enters the alley and engages the bodyguard, but Pol Pot quickly puts him down from behind with a strike from his cane knife. Pot then motions for the rebel to move into the house while Pot frees his knife from the dead guard's back. The rebel moves into the house, but sees nothing. He motions for the Khmer Rouge leader to come in, but is soon attacked from behind by The Butcher of Baghdad, who stabs his combat knife through the front of his chest. Pol Pot empties the rest of his Tokarev ammo at Saddam as he drags the dead rebel inside.
He drops his Tokarev on the ground and cautiously enters the building, holding his cane knife. Through a window, he sees Saddam standing behind a wall with only his left arm visible. Pol Pot makes his move and rounds the corner, swinging his cane knife into the dictator's neck. However, he realizes he has cut into the throat of his dead comrade too late when when the real Saddam comes in to his side, wearing an undershirt. Hussein raises his Browning to the Khmer Rouge leader's head, taunts him by saying This is a weapon! in Arabic, and pulls the trigger. After Pol Pot drops out of view, Saddam Hussein raises his gun in the air and shouts "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) in victory.
Expert's Opinion
Saddam and his Republican Guards had the training, tactics and resources to take out rebels, which Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge fighters were and this is how Saddam ended up winning. They also mention that while Saddam was also aggressive, he was more sane and organized than the violently crazy Pol Pot.
Trivia
- This is the first modern match up to use named warriors from the last half of the 20th century.
- Saddam is tied with William the Conqueror as the heaviest warrior on the show with a confirmed weight (at 215 lbs.)
- This is the only episode in season 3 where both warriors use four weapons each.
- A video available on the official Deadliest Warrior website shows tests cut from the episode examining the combatants' preferred methods of torture: Saddam's chemical bath & Pol Pot's electrocution torture.
- One of the Saddam Hussein experts, Sabah Khodada, served under Saddam until he was arrested for insubordination. He is the first and so far only expert to have personally known the named warrior as most of the other named warriors existed too far into the past to have any witnesses of their actions alive today. Sabah is also the first expert who doesn't speak English.
- According to the show, Saddam dreamed of recreating the Babylon empire with him in the center of power.
- Ending his reign at 2003 and dying in 2006 by hanging, Saddam is the most recent inactive warrior and named warrior on the show.
- Possibly a sign of Saddam's narcissism, most Republican Guards of Iraq during Saddam's reign had mustaches similar to Saddam's. However the simulated fight has all the guards with light beards instead, possibly to avoid confusion.
- Although Saddam's Ba'ath Party is removed from power and outlawed in Iraq, they still exist in Iraq as a terrorist group, which was formed after being removed from power. They continue the Iraq War even after US and NATO forces left in 2011.