The Lawfare Podcast Lawfare Archive: Steve Coll on Saddam Hussein and the Limits of American Power in the Middle East
Mar 14, 2026
Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and historian of U.S. foreign policy, discusses Saddam Hussein using newly available tapes and archives. He explores Saddam’s mix of paranoia and showmanship, family power dynamics, U.S.–Iraq covert ties during the Iran‑Iraq war, failures of coup efforts, and how mutual misunderstandings shaped the march to invasion.
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Saddam's Secret Tapes Revealed His Private Performances
- Steve Coll discovered Saddam had recorded his leadership conversations extensively, providing rare internal access.
- Coll sued the Pentagon under FOIA, obtained tapes and documents, and used them to reconstruct Saddam's private performances and strategy.
Saddam's Speech Was Performance Not Plain Truth
- Saddam's public statements were performances intended to align and intimidate his subordinates rather than straightforward reflections of belief.
- Repetition across meetings revealed consistent priorities even when his rhetoric and tangents made him seem unpredictable.
Paranoia Created Saddam's Strategic Blind Spots
- Saddam combined tactical shrewdness with deep paranoia about a U.S.-Israel-Iran triangle conspiring against him.
- That paranoia produced strategic blind spots despite his effective short-term power preservation tactics.
