He was quite gifted in politics, which was the reason that had made his father depend on him in the negotiations with Britain and in the peace conference of Paris 1919. In addition, he had led his father's troops in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire in 1916. He succeeded in taking most of Syria and he declared himself as a king of Syria in September 1918 with the blessings of the leaders of the emerging Arab-Nationalism movement. However, when the French entered the country under the terms of a League of Nations mandate, they forced him to leave the throne of Syria very abruptly after the failure of the negotiations and he was forced into a temporary exile in Britain.

The British administration of the occupied Iraq at the time had enough troubles with controlling the violent resentment of the Iraqi people for the occupation. Specially after the August 1920 revolt almost all over the country it was decided by the British government to change its presence in Iraq into an indirect one by giving Iraqis their own government. Faisal was the most appropriate candidate for the suggested Iraqi throne, and he had the support of the local national movement. Subsequently he was crowned on the 23rd of August 1921 as Faisal I of the newly created Iraqi Kingdom after a referendum controlled by the British administration. Through his reign he had a wide support of the local power poles in Iraq and the region. His governments managed to sign different treaties with Britain and achieving the independence in 1932 when Iraq became a full member of the League of Nations. He died in the 8th of December 1933 in a clinic in Bern, Switzerland after having heart problems.

Qassem supported poor farmers and middle class workers, allowed trade unions to form, worked to end the feudal land system long in place, and lifted a ban on Iraq's Communist Party.

Qassem also attempted to negotiate with the Iraq Petroleum Company to increase Iraq's royalties. Finally passing ¨Public Law 80¨ in December 1961, prohibiting concessions being granted to foreign companies.

The UN embargo caused severe hardship, as Iraqis had difficulty obtaining basic items such as food and medicine. In 1996 the Iraqi parliament accepted a UN Security Council plan authorizing Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil in order to meet its urgent humanitarian needs. The plan went into effect that December. Following the Gulf War, Saddam repeatedly clashed with the UN concerning UN inspections of Iraqi weapons sites, which were conducted to determine if Iraq is manufacturing certain nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

On 20th of March 23, 2003 Iraq time, the U.S. and coalition forces launched missiles and bombs at targets in Iraq in what the Pentagon called a "Decapitation attack." the start of the military campaign against Iraq.

1st of May 2003, just 43 days after the start of the war in Iraq, President Bush announced "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." Saddam went in to hiding, and it took six and a half months before he was captured without a shot fired on December 13, 2003, at a rural home outside his hometown of Tikrit. That was not the case for his sons, Qusai and Odai, who were killed in gunbattle with American soldiers on July 22, 2003

July 1, 2004 - Saddam Hussein appears in court, arraigned before judge on charges of war crimes and genocide. On October 19, 2005, he goes on trial for the 1982 massacre of 148 people in Dujail, Iraq, and on March 1, 2006 Saddam admits ordering their execution.

April 4, 2006 - Faces new criminal charges, for second trial with six others for genocide against the Kurds in northern Iraq during the so-called al-Anfal campaign, in 1987-88 in which some 180,000 Kurds were killed and thousands of their villages were destroyed.