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One of the lessons of recent and distant history is that all empires and bearers of the coffin of evil, whenever they mobilized their evil against the Arab nation, or against the Muslim world, they were themselves buried in their own coffin, with their sick dreams and their arrogance and greed, under Arab and Islamic soil; or they returned to die on the land from which they had proceeded to perpetrate aggression. This has been the case with all empires preceeding our present time.

Saddam Hussein#15

AggressionEmpireHistoryMorality

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker claims that empires that attack the Arab or Muslim world eventually destroy themselves through their own greed and arrogance.
In plain terms
Empires that attack Arabs or Muslims eventually fail because of their own greed.
What can you take from it?
Aggression driven by greed leads to self-destruction.

Where it applies

  • historical analysis
  • political rhetoric
  • geopolitics

Putting it to work

  • analyze historical patterns
  • warn against imperialism
  • justify resistance

Questions to consider

  • Does history show a pattern of imperial self-destruction?
  • How does arrogance contribute to the fall of powers?

Another view

This view simplifies complex historical outcomes into a single moral lesson.

More from Saddam Hussein

  1. Of the lessons also gained from the history of mankind is the fact that greed and arrogance, when combined, lead the oppressor to do injustice not only to othe…

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  2. You gotta find a good woman. Not too smart, not too dumb. Not too old, not too young. One that can cook and clean.

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  3. Kuwait is an Iraqi territory. It was not an invasion.

    Permalink to quote #13

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