2. Saddam's Evolution and Imposed Sectarianism Abdullahad's first war memory was 1980's Iran-Iraq conflict, leading to bankruptcy and Kuwait invasion amid pervasive militarization. Saddam, initially a pan-Arab revolutionary called "leader of necessity," s

2. Saddam's Evolution and Imposed Sectarianism Abdullahad's first war memory was 1980's Iran-Iraq conflict, leading to bankruptcy and Kuwait invasion amid pervasive militarization. Saddam, initially a pan-Arab revolutionary called "leader of necessity," shifted after Kuwait defeat to pious tribal leader leveraging religion to extend authority. Iraqi society in the 1980s-90s was defined by class and birthplace, not sect—destructive Sunni-Shia conflict was imposed after 2003, created in exile to market regime change.