He was a brutal dictator who brooked no dissent. His arch rival was murdered with an ice-pick. He ordered his troops shot for fleeing the frontline.

Saddam Hussein? No, Joseph Stalin.

Yet, 26 million people died defending Stalin's Soviet Union from the Nazi invasion.

Indeed, the nationalistic forces which brought a surge in support for George W Bush and Tony Blair in their own countries are the same forces now fueling stubborn resistance to the invasion of Iraq.

The Anglo-American forces had hoped, and are still wishing, that Saddam's regime would crumble under intense bombing. In his deep underground bunker, however, Saddam hopes that Baghdad will prove to be Bush's Stalingrad.

'Stand firm'

Fast rewind to World War Two.

Ten weeks were all Adolf Hitler thought he needed to defeat Soviet Union. It turned out to be much longer. Still, the German blitzkrieg saw city after city fall into the hands of the invaders. By August 1942 - 14 months after the invasion - the Nazis were at the gates of Stalingrad.

But Stalin was in no mood to give up a city named after him. His orders to the Red Army: 'Stand firm. Die but do not retreat.'

This resulted in the deadliest battle in military history. When it ended five months later, two million people had died.

The ferocious battle was fought man to man, house to house, street to street. Territory which the Germans - with their superior fire power - had won by day was regained by night. The Soviets fought for every inch of the ground and for every building, whether still standing or destroyed.

Hitler had underestimated the will of the Soviet people to resist him and his 'invincible' army. It was Stalingrad which ultimately turned the tide of World War Two.

Same mistake

The same mistake is now being made by Bush. He has misjudged the Iraqi people's will to oppose the Anglo-American o­nslaught. Clearly, the resistance of the Iraqi people is not so much to defend Saddam's regime but to defend their family, their land, their honour and their dignity.

The Iraqis have not forgotten that they spent the best part of the last century to rid themselves of the British occupiers. Then, it was British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who used poison gas against the Iraqis. No wonder, they don't want them back anytime soon.

The Iraqis, too, remember Saladin well. After all, Saladin - who led the Muslims in 1187 to defeat the might of Richard the Lion Heart and recapture Jerusalem from the crusaders - hailed from the hills of northern Iraq.

Saddam, during his 24 years in power, has often fashioned himself as a modern-day Saladin, though he conveniently ignored the fact that this Iraqi hero was really a Kurd.

For US and Britain, portraying 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' as o­ne where the forces of good are pitted against evil will certainly help shore up public support. If o­nly it was that simple. Clearly, those who forget the past are bound to repeat it.

In 1996, then US secretary of state Madeleine Albright said o­n national TV - when asked for her reaction to the killing of half a million Iraqi children as a result of punishing sanctions - "we think the price is worth it."

So far, some 600 Iraqi civilians, according to Iraqi officials, have died. The price is, no doubt, still worth it.

Just as the crusaders' 'civilising' mission provided a pretext for the conquest of Asia, Africa and Latin America in the past, today the protection of 'human rights' has been used as the cloak for a new type of imperialist military intervention.

Elusive victory

Make no mistake - democracy cannot be delivered o­n the wings of the Tomahawk. Indeed, every bomb that fall from the skies of Baghdad, and every Iraqi life lost or maimed, will be blamed not o­n Saddam, but Bush and Blair.

Which is why winning this war - however long it may take - is the easy part. Winning the peace will prove to be a lot more elusive.

At the battle of Stalingrad, when Hitler realised that his army was facing defeat, he made Friedrich Paulus, the general in charge of the ailing offensive , field marshal - the highest rank in the German military.

Paulus was told that no German field marshal had ever surrendered to the enemy. The message was clear: Paulus, who was then surrounded by the Red Army, was to commit suicide.

Instead, Stalin offered Paulus to surrender, which to Hitler's fury, he did. Saddam, however, will not be given that option. And as the war unfolds in the coming days and weeks, Saddam may yet fulfil his dream of becoming Saladin II.

And those who forget the past are bound to repeat it.