The flight in early August of Saddam Hussein's two daughters, their husbands, their families, and their entourages offers a dramatic high point for Iraq. That the two sons-in-law held high positions in the regime and that one of them, Hussein Kamil, was widely seen as the its second-most powerful figure, suggests that Saddam end is that much closer.
The Los Angeles Times reports that "The Iraqi dictator was so shaken by the defections that he sent his eldest son, Uday, to Amman to demand that the Iraqis be returned. Jordan flatly turned him down." The U.S. government offered Amman protection; perhaps it will reap an intelligence bonanza.
Looking to the longer term, the flight appears to mark a turning point in personnel policy. Saddam's reliance on his immediate family members to carry out his orders appears to be coming to an end, forcing him back to relying on established figures of the Baath Party.
This event also marks the steady, quiet deterioration of life in Iraq. The economy is perhaps one-tenth its size in 1980; standards of living have reverted roughly to where they were in the 1940s. Personal security has collapsed. A sense of hopelessness pervades for there seems to be no end in sight to the country's continued decline. (August 11, 1995)
