From the archives | Ruthless reach for power: Dictator has a long history of violence

This story originally published on Aug. 3, 1990. It is being republished as part of the commemoration of USA TODAY's 40th anniversary on Sept. 15, 2022.

The "butcher of Baghdad,'' by bullying his way into tiny Kuwait, proved his ruthlessness knows no boundaries.

Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president who pledged to "scorch half of Israel'' with poison gas, who once shot a colleague point-blank at a Cabinet meeting, who obliterated whole villages of ethnic Kurds, is on the warpath.