ASHLAND CITY, TN – Three years ago this week, the once-swaggering Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was led to the gallows and, as the noose was placed around his neck, he taunted his captors with shouts of “down with Persians and the Americans,” “I am a militant and I have no fear for myself” and “Palestine is Arab!”
Yet as he began his journey to the hangman’s noose three years before, after being pulled from his “spider hole” near Tikrit, he spoke of having once wanted to become a doctor. The dictator even bragged about how he had once performed surgery on himself, to extract a bullet lodged in his thigh. Hussein was executed by the Iraqi government on December 30, 2006.
The first American to have a significant conversation with Saddam after his capture was an Army flight surgeon, Dr. Mark Green, who has written about the experience in his new book, “A Night with Saddam.”
In a riveting narrative about the once-powerful dictator’s first night in captivity, Dr. Green tells of a night-long conversation, conducted through an interpreter, which began with Saddam recalling how he’d once wanted to be a physician.
“When I introduced myself as a doctor, he told me that he’d once wanted to study medicine,” Dr. Green said.
Saddam went on to describe how, after being shot in the leg during his 1959 coup attempt against General Abdul Qassim, he removed the bullet himself.
“He was very animated describing his Rambo-like field surgery, pointing to the wound area covered by his pant leg and physically demonstrating how he removed the bullet,” Dr. Green described. “He grimaced, showing his teeth and squinting his eyes, remembering the pain of it all.”
A West Point graduate and veteran of several tours in Iraq, Dr. Green has received the Bronze Star, The Air Medal with "V" device for Valor, The Air Medal, and the Combat Medical Badge. He lives in Ashland City, TN with his wife and children and practices medicine at Bay Medical Center in Panama City, FL. Please visit www.anightwithsaddam.com to purchase “A Night with Saddam.”
A portion of the proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, Night Stalker Association and Bay Medical Foundation.
