BAGHDAD, 15 December 2003 — His rule was so absolute, his word so feared, his regime so brutal that nothing in Iraq was spared the devastating touch of Saddam Hussein, whose reign and now his freedom was cut short by US forces.

From the oil industry to education, the army to the economy, a country once one of the most advanced in the Arab world, was ruined, and is only being rebuilt with extreme difficulty by the US-led coalition now occupying Iraq.

Such is the legacy of Saddam, the man who sought to ensure his place in history through military conquest and grandiose schemes such as rebuilding Babylon with bricks stamped “in the era of Saddam Hussein”, mimicking the achievements of the legendary King Nebuchadnezzar.

He had barely become president in 1979 after rising swiftly through the ranks as a ruthless man of action, then he launched an invasion of neighboring Iran to begin a war that raged for eight years and cost an estimated one million lives.

Consolidating his power and with an eye on a better maritime outlet on the Gulf, and with his country facing what he called “economic sabotage”, Saddam unleashed his army on Kuwait in August 1990, totally misreading US resolution.

His forces were quickly routed by a US-led coalition that included the other major players in the Arab world, but the Iraqi strongman clung on to power in Baghdad.

United Nations sanctions wrecked any hope of real development and the country, isolated and weak, was left on a course of slow death.

But the regime continued to rage daily in support of lost causes, rallying people to Saddam’s side and brutally snuffing out dissent, until the final catastrophic showdown with the hyperpower began on March 20.

Three weeks later it collapsed as the leadership fled, but it was to be more than eight months before Saddam was to be tracked down and captured, not in glory but instead even without a fight, unlike his sons, Uday and Qusay.

The education sector, where Iraqis once stood out proudly providing distinguished doctors, engineers and scientists, offers a quick lesson in the country’s decline.

Resources dried up, sanctions bit deeply and the best fled abroad. Those who remained became virtual paupers reduced to scrambling to hear of progress in the outside world.