Putin and Saddam Hussein Have a Lot in Common
The parallels between the course of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Iraq-Iran War are hard to ignore.
Putin is following Saddam’s Iraq-Iran War playbook.
Photographer: Pierre Perrin/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
The significance of the war in Ukraine to the Western world lies largely in its geography: It’s being fought in Europe, only a small distance away from some of the wealthiest and most avowedly peaceful nations of the world. Parallels with earlier European wars, most notably the Winter War unleashed by the Soviet Union on Finland, abounded in the conflict’s early weeks. But the war that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is coming to resemble most was fought in distant Mesopotamia.
Every historical comparison is a stretch — history doesn’t quite repeat itself. And yet, to a reader of the chapters of Saddam Hussein biographies that deal with the Iraq-Iran war, the parallels are unavoidable.