The assigned Washington Post Op-Ed by Daniel Chirot can be interpreted as asserting that

• A. inadequate education and lack of knowledge of history in the population is why saddam hussein’s government succeeded in ruling iraq for so long
• B. the right way to think about saddam hussein’s government is basically as if he were the head of a mafia organization
• C. saddam hussein’s government could be described as adhering to an organic philosophy
• D. the biggest problem in iraq under saddam hussein was a lack of rule of law