This is a detailed and involved account of the rise of the ideology of the Baath party, its coming to power in Iraq in the 1960s, and the ways in which it has become a regime of totalitarian rule, institutionalized violence, universal fear and unchecked personal dictatorship. The ultimate madness was the Iraq-Iran War, but that was a logical outcome of Saddam Hussein's system. An unusual, powerful and disturbing book. The author, who writes under a pseudonym, is an Iraqi expatriate.