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Hussein - The man the U.S. loves to hate

"... This is not a man who wants to go down in flames ..." says one analyst of Saddam Hussein

(CNN) -- If the experts were sure what makes Hussein tick, they might know how to wind him down. But there are only theories, educated guesses about his mind and motives.

"Is he a megalomaniac?" asks Adeed Dawisha, a professor of government and politics. "You bet your life .. Of course he is."

Hussein, at war with neighbors for nearly half his 19 years in power and demonized by his Western foes, is one of modern history's most durable Middle East rulers.

A great survivor of the 1991 Gulf War that drove his forces out of Kuwait, Hussein has been hemmed in for more than seven years by punitive U.N. sanctions slapped on Iraq after he invaded the tiny Gulf state in August 1990.

For much of the last seven years, the cat-and-mouse game between Washington and Baghdad has centered on U.N. arms inspectors trying to ensure the destruction of Iraq's alleged chemical and biological weapons. With international patience over Hussein's brinkmanship at an all time low, Western leaders are once again poised to launch air and missile strikes against Iraqi targets.

"Yet this is not a man who wants to go down in flames," says Jerrold Post, a professor of psychiatry who studies political leaders.

From riches to rags

In 1979 when Hussein took over, Iraq was a powerful and respected state, just beginning to flex its muscles as a regional power and booming on petrodollars from some of the world's largest oil reserves.

Iraqi street poster celebrated Hussein's 1995 victory

Nearly two decades later, isolated internationally and shackled by the sanctions, the 61-year-old leader rules over a country where many children go hungry, professors moonlight as taxi drivers and law and order depends on stiff punishments.

His plans to build powerful weapons including an infamous "Doomsday gun" lie in tatters. Enough biological and chemical agents to wipe out large populations have been destroyed, although the inspectors -- despite Iraqi denials -- say they believe more may have been concealed from them.

Critics say that Hussein, whose name in Arabic means "He who confronts," has only himself to blame for his isolation, mainly through disastrous and costly adventures - invading first Iran in 1980 and then Kuwait in 1990.

In 1991, when CNN interviewed the Iraqi leader early in the Gulf War, he appeared ignorant of the West. And although facing the world's most powerful military force, he seemed indifferent to the bombing of Baghdad.

"Whoever has God on his side never gets defeated," he said then.

Dawisha, an Iraq specialist at George Mason University near Washington, says Hussein's hallmark in international policy and diplomacy has been to "push the limits."

Examples:

• In early 1997, Hussein sent thousands of troops into the unprotected region in northern Iraq to attack Kurdish opponents.

• In 1994, he sent Iraqi forces toward the southern border with Kuwait.

In Iraq, it's Hussein's point of view that prevails. His inner circle is required to shower him with praise. Hussein tolerates no dissent. To criticize him "is to be either out of a job or out of one's life," says Post.

One of the two sons-in-law was Lt. Gen Hussein Kamel

Case in point: Hussein's two sons-in-law defected to Jordan in 1995, then begged forgiveness. Hussein welcomed them back but a few days after their return to Iraq in March 1996 both were dead.

Hussein's motives

In the mind of the Iraqi president, the day will come when the international coalition crumbles, sanctions are lifted and Iraq is once again open for business.

Pro-Hussein demonstrations during early 1998

"He can then stand up to the people who want to trade with him, who want to sell him arms, who want to buy his oil and remind them how strong he was, that he did not buckle under at the height of American pressure," says Dawisha.

Post agrees: "He has believed for many years that he belongs up there in the pantheon of great socialist leaders: Mao Tse-tung, Castro, Tito. But until the Gulf crisis, he had been overlooked."