Leadership
SADDAM HUSSEIN VS RICHARD BRANSON
COMPARISON OF LEADERSHIP SKILLS AND ABILITIES
In comparing two very successful leaders we will be able discern the key qualities and actions that made them either a good leader or a bad leader. The path both Saddam Hussein and Richard Branson took to elevate themselves to the high level leaders each of them became will be discussed and I will compare and contrast the methods of leader development and the advantages and disadvantages each provides.
Saddam Hussein
Born in Tikrit, Iraq in 1937, Saddam Hussein endured a humble existence and difficult childhood. Nevertheless, the secularist Hussein was a political animal who rose through political ranks with the Ba'ath Party, learning his leadership methods by studying Josef Stalin (Hickman, 2003). In 1968, a bloodless coup by the Ba'ath Party resulted in the Presidency of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and the high government position of al-Bakr's Deputy for Hussein (Biography.com editors, n.d.). As Deputy, Hussein was advanced, successful and ruthless, modernizing Iraq's infrastructure, economy, lucrative oil industry, education and healthcare systems while establishing a cruel security system that regularly used torture, rape and murder to protect the government against coups and to eliminate Hussein's political rivals (MacFarquhar, 2006). The citizenry of Iraq justifiably feared Hussein's brutal and deadly methods, dubbing him "The Butcher of Baghdad" (Siemaszko, 2015). In 1979, Hussein forced al-Bakr's resignation and became President of Iraq. Under his Presidency, Iraq invaded the oil-rich area of Khuzestan, Iran in 1980, setting off an 8-year war costing hundreds of thousands of lives. Fearing Islamic radicalism, Western countries backed Hussein, turning a blind eye to his internationally illegal invasion of Iran, development of chemical weapons and nuclear weapons and near-genocide of Iraqi Kurds. In 1988, a ceasefire was reached; however, the war had severely damaged Iraq's economy. Consequently, in 1990, Hussein invaded the oil-rich country of Kuwait and ignored a 1991 withdrawal date imposed by the UN Security Council. In response, UN forces led by the United States attacked Iraq and temporarily subdued Hussein's government. In 2002, after declaring that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction, the United States waged war against Iraq, toppling its government and sending Hussein into hiding. Hussein was captured in 2003, tried in 2004 for crimes against humanity, found guilty and hanged on December 30, 2006.
Saddam Hussein was an odd dichotomy. He deftly rose through the political ranks to a position of supreme authority in Iraq and radically modernized Iraq in several key areas. However, he was ultimately a horrible leader in at least four respects, discussed here in no particular order of importance. First, he cavalierly and widely executed Iraqi citizens, sometimes for "offenses" no more serious than publicly joking about him or criticizing him, and constricting Iraq into a deadly police state that habitually imprisoned, tortured and lethally gassed its own citizens (MacFarquhar, 2006). Secondly, Hussein possessed a delusional, egotistical belief that he was ordained by God to rule and "save" Iraq, resulting in the mandatory placement of his statue at the entrance to every Iraqi village and his portrait in every Iraqi government office and home. In fact, Hussein's delusional egoism was so overblown that even while in captivity in 2003-2006, he still regarded himself as Iraq's President, somehow destined to regain his tyrannical power over the country (MacFarquhar, 2006). Third, nepotism rose to an art form during his Presidency. He crammed the highest ranks of government with his own relatives, leading to incompetent leadership and bloody family feuds that crippled rather than strengthened Iraqi government (MacFarquhar, 2006). Fourth, he subjected his nation to wars that sapped Iraq's resources. As Sollozzo said in "The Godfather," "Blood is a big expense." Hussein's decisions to invade the neighboring countries of Iran and Kuwait resulted in severe economic sanctions from the West against an economy otherwise drained and a citizenry decimated by years of war (MacFarquhar, 2006). Rather than building up and securing his country's economy, Hussein's aggressive approach to other countries caused Iraq to suffer terribly, negating much of the advances he made by modernizing the country. In the last analysis, Hussein was a terrible leader whose execution of his own citizens, delusional egoism, nepotism and expensive aggression toward neighboring countries nearly destroyed his own nation.
b. Richard Branson
Born in 1950 in Surrey, England, Richard Branson was a struggling student, at least partly due to his dyslexia, and dropped out of school at the age of 16. In that same year of 1966, Branson launched a youth culture magazine called "Student."...
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