An Oral History of Saddam Hussein’s Capture

In early 2003, long on confidence and short on foresight, the United States invaded Iraq and sent its despot into hiding. Fifteen years ago this month, we found him. (And that's when our real challenges began.) [ view in browser.   add esquire@newsletter.esquire.com to your address book ]             FOLLOW US       'Looking for Elvis': An Oral History of Saddam Hussein's Capture   In the first weeks of the Iraq war, the Pentagon assembled a pack of playing cards denoting Iraq's most wanted, the fifty-five figures in the Iraqi government and military deemed its most important targets. This is the story of the hunt for the Ace of Spades—the ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, known around the world simply as Saddam—told by those who caught him. Saddam made his last public appearance on April 9, 2003, in the streets of Baghdad, as U.S. forces closed in on the Iraqi capital. Then he just disappeared. As months passed and priorities shifted, it seemed that our interest in finding him did, too. In May, President George W. Bush took to the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and, under a banner reading mission accomplished, proclaimed major combat operations over; the U.S. government established its own interim government in Baghdad, called the Coalition Provisional Authority; and more than 150,000 U.S. troops settled in to occupy post-Saddam Iraq. In fact, the search for Saddam, aka "High Value Target #1," never stopped, particularly in areas where U.S. intelligence suspected he might be found: northwest of the capital, around Tikrit and the area that would later be labeled the Sunni Triangle—reflecting the ancestral roots of Saddam's Sunni backers. That work fell to the roughly thirty thousand troops of the Army's Fourth Infantry Division, working alongside a special team of Delta Force operators known as Task Force 121. READ MORE       13 Sweater Styles to Round Out Every Guy's Rotation   There's a type of sweater for every situation. You've got your work-appropriate V-necks, your oversized crewnecks, your apres-ski printed pullovers. Your closet (and life) benefits from having a host of sweaters in it. They'll help keep your style on point—and your body warm—all winter. Here are the 13 styles that every man should know. Read On         The Year Star Wars Fans Finally Ruined Star Wars   Star Wars, and a loud section of Star Wars fans, have tragically become synonymous with hate, bigotry, and pervasive assholeness in 2018. From various sinister online campaigns, to racist and misogynistic attacks on actors, to bafflingly stupid takes and interpretations of the film, The Last Jedi inspired the worst impulses of a far-right movement that's taking hold of the internet and extending its influence into the real world. And all this for a family movie, largely designed to sell toys to children. Read On         J Balvin's Moment Is Bigger Than Music: 'We Are the New Hope of Our Country'   J Balvin knows what you think of when you think of Colombia. The country has an unpleasant past, one that's been re-upped and packaged in Hollywood gloss time and again, a painful reminder of a reputation that the country is still fighting to leave behind. But no one is more determined to help them do that than J Balvin. Balvin spoke with Esquire about his country, having the song of the summer, and what's next for him. He says, "We're moving the culture forward." Read On         Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Is the Best Superhero Movie Since Black Panther   The animated film follows Miles Morales, a Brooklyn kid who gets bitten by a radioactive spider and finds himself imbued with super strength and the ability to climb walls. If that origin story sounds familiar, that's where the similarities end between Spider-Verse and all the other Spidey films you've seen in the 2000s. Read On         The Best Country Songs of 2018 Tackle the Problems at the Heart of America   The best songs to emerge out of Music City this year range from protests of gun violence and racial profiling to roaring anthems for single women and homesick laments to war-scarred memories. In the case of Brandi Carlile's "Every Time I Hear That Song," they preached the power of music, and on Maddie & Tae's "Die From a Broken Heart," they admitted that no matter how old you get, no one mends an injured heart quite like mom. Read On       Unsubscribe •  Privacy Notice   esquire.com ©2018 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019