Sen. Deddeh, Native of Iraq, Urges Caution in Dealings With Hussein

State Sen. Wadie P. Deddeh (D-Bonita), who was born and raised in Baghdad and remains in close contact with officials in Iraq, on Friday urged Americans to reserve judgment on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“If we portray him as (another) Kadafi, as I heard (a federal official) describe him, we are doing a disservice not just to him but to us,” said Deddeh, who immigrated to the United States in 1947. “Contrary to what politicians have been saying, he’s not crazy, he’s not a madman . . . he knows exactly what he wants to do.”

Deddeh, who does not know Hussein personally, has met with most members of the controversial leader’s cabinet and with most of Iraq’s recent U.S. ambassadors. Deddeh met with some of those officials during a 1987 Baghdad visit, his seventh return trip since leaving Iraq in 1947.

Deddeh described Hussein as an “authoritarian” who has managed to retain the loyalty of his countrymen. “The proof of the pudding is that Iraqis love him,” Deddeh said, despite the staggering loss of life that Iraq suffered during its decade-long war with Iran. “He has the support of probably 99% of the people,” Deddeh said.

Deddeh, who ardently opposes Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, “supports everything that (President Bush) has done so far” in the form of sanctions. But he maintained that there is “no reason to spill American blood over Kuwait unless there is an interruption of the flow of oil” out of the region.

The U.S. policy “has been, is and will continue to be that we will not tolerate a disruption of the flow of oil from that area,” Deddeh said. “The question we have to ask as Americans is if Saddam Hussein is going to stop the flow of oil--and the answer to that is no.”

Deddeh maintained that Hussein is not interested in disrupting oil exports because Iraq is desperate for the hard currency oil production generates. But Deddeh said Hussein probably will try to force recalcitrant members of the oil-producing cartel to obey quotas that were designed to raise the price of oil.

Deddeh linked the surprise invasion to a longstanding territorial dispute over a part of Kuwait known as Rumiala. The territorial dispute has existed for centuries and was exacerbated at the close of World War I when Western powers arbitrarily carved up the region, a process that turned Kuwait into a separate country, Deddeh said.

Because of that history, Americans should not seek a quick or simple explanation for the invasion, Deddeh said. “Even when I was child in elementary school in Baghdad 50 years ago, we kids used to have demonstrations about how this was (Iraqi) territory,” Deddeh said.

Although the two countries have tried to negotiate a settlement to the territorial dispute, the disagreement led to armed confrontation in part because oil-rich Kuwait, which accounts for 10% of the world’s known oil reserves, was demanding that Iraq repay billions of dollars in loans made during the war with Iran.

Unfortunately, Kuwait’s “legitimate” demand for debt repayment occurred as Iraq “came out of its 8 1/2-year war with Iran . . . economically disadvantaged, having lost (much) of its hard currency,” Deddeh said.

Iraq, which lost as many as 300,000 soldiers and an estimated $100 billion during the war, “rightly or wrongly” accused Kuwait of stealing oil from the Rumiala province’s rich fields, Deddeh said.

Deddeh expressed “surprise” at the unexpected invasion. But he said that Iraqi observers suspected that military action might occur following a “little-noticed communique” the two countries issued just days before the war broke out.

The communique indicated that Iraq and Kuwait had broken off negotiations over the territorial dispute “after just a half hour or so,” Deddeh said.

“I thought, knowing the history, that something would happen,” Deddeh said. “But I did not think that Iraq would move into Kuwait the way that it did.”

But Deddeh maintained there is “absolutely no cause, no reason for (Iraq) to have any hostile relationship with Saudi Arabia . . . they’re not traditional enemies.”

Iraq, Deddeh said, seems more intent upon stabilizing the price of oil and forcing the Middle East’s petroleum-rich countries to stick with production quotas.

“Iraq claims that, every time the price of oil drops $1, it costs them $1 billion,” Deddeh said. “So, if you reduce the price of oil from $19 to $14 or $15, you’ve cost them $5 billion,” Deddeh said.

Hussein also is signaling his intent to turn Iraq into the “defender of any Arab land . . . between the Atlantic and the Persian Gulf,” Deddeh said. “But people should not get emotional about that,” Deddeh said, because Hussein “does not want to attack anyone.”

Hussein “is not a paper tiger,” Deddeh said. “I’ve read his speeches, and what he’s saying is, ‘If you hurt me, I’ll hurt you.’ ”

“I hope to God that the experts in Washington, D.C., know that he means business,” Deddeh said. “He has 1 million soldiers who are fully armed and battle-tested.”

Deddeh is a member of San Diego’s Chaldean community, a group of 1,300 Roman Catholic families who immigrated to the United States from Iraq. Deddeh, who moved to Detroit in 1947, came to San Diego in 1959.