One day in October 1979, Mehail Ramadan, who had finished his day's work, dragged his tired body home as usual.
As soon as he reached the door, he was stopped by several big men guarding the door.
Before he could react, the men forced him into his home.
Terrified, Mehail was at home when he saw a smiling government official.
This official was Saddam's uncle, Khairah.
01: Forced to become a "shadow" that can't see the light
After this brief meeting with Khaira, Mehail was taken to Saddam's villa.
Mehail, who could enter the villa, did not immediately see Saddam Hussein, but stayed in the villa for two days before meeting the legendary president.
He stood awkwardly in front of Saddam Hussein, a scene he had never imagined in his ordinary life before.
Saddam Looked at him for a long time, and in his eyes was not only shocked but also satisfied, and he had to say that the man in front of him was indeed very similar to him.
He looked at the cramped and uneasy Mehail in front of him, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and said in a relaxed tone: "I wonder if my father has seen your mother somewhere." ”
This small joke made Hailera, who was following behind him, laugh out loud, and the atmosphere seemed to become pleasant.
But Mehail's nervousness and shock were not relieved in such a pleasant atmosphere.
He stood there nervously, like a prisoner awaiting trial, and even if he was dull, he began to realize that his fate would change drastically because of this meeting.
After a brief greeting, Saddam finally stopped circumventing the bend and spoke directly of his purpose: "Mehail, you know what? Stalin had a stand-in, or even more, dedicated to him, and so did Khrushchev. ”
In the face of the president's questioning, Mehail stood there nervously, not knowing how to respond.
Still next to Himalla, who broke the terrible silence, he echoed Saddam Hussein and said, "This is not a secret internationally."
Having said that, Saddam hurled out laughing wildly, as if it were a particularly hilarious affair and not some state secret.
Looking at their relaxed and happy expressions, Mehail wanted to respond, but felt like a fish out of the water, nervous enough to breathe heavily, he forced himself to laugh and agree, but still could not hide the fear and uneasiness in his heart.
When the laughter stopped, Saddam suddenly stared at him with a serious expression and said word by word: "So Mehail, I think you understand what I mean." ”
Mehail was stared at by his eyes a little hairy, he opened his mouth to refuse, but found that his lips were dry and uncomfortable, and he could only swallow a mouthful of spit with difficulty, swallowing the sound he wanted to refuse.
Because he knew that in the face of this iron-blooded dictatorship, he had no right to refuse at all.
Although Mehail is very similar to Saddam, there are still many differences under close inspection, first of all, the voices of the two people are completely different, and secondly, there is a big gap in the age of the two, Andehail is much younger than Saddam.
In order to completely become a stand-in for the president, Mehail had to be forced to undergo a series of plastic surgeries, constantly adjusting his appearance, adding small wrinkles, changing his voice, and completely turning himself into a copy of the president.
Under such a transformation, Mehail is almost the same as Saddam Hussein in appearance, and the two stand together, and it is basically difficult to recognize who is real and who is fake from their appearance alone.
We all know that a person's appearance is easy to change, but his behavior or demeanor is difficult to change.
As a result, Mehail had to spend a lot of time mimicking Saddam's every move.
For the next full year, he was forced to stay in a room monitored 24 hours a day, watching Videos of Saddam Hussein constantly, imitating his demeanor.
Such high-intensity training made him physically and mentally exhausted, in addition to painful training and plastic surgery, the most unbearable thing for him was the separation from his wife and children.
Because of the peculiarities of the job, he was forced to stay away from his wife and children, and was even restricted from meeting with his wife and children.
Although the whole process of becoming a presidential stand-in was tedious and painful, in order to ensure the safety of his family, he had to grit his teeth and endure.
Fortunately, this painful and long training has achieved unexpected success.
02: The Dangerous "Stand-in Career"
In December 1980, Mehail was tested for the first time in his stuntman career.
Mehail was ordered to visit a children's hospital, and he was nervous about his first mission.
He forced himself to calm down because he knew that only by accomplishing his tasks well could he and his family be safe.
To others, this may be just an ordinary presidential expedition, but for him it is the only straw that can be saved, and only by clinging to this life-saving straw can he gain vitality.
He kept in mind his usual training content and successfully completed the expedition.
Not only did the people watching in front of the TV set not find the truth of the "stand-in", but even the reporters who followed the filming closely all the way did not find any abnormality.
The success of this test made Mehail, who had been tense, breathe a sigh of relief, and saddam Hussein was overjoyed.
So Mehail began to replace Saddam Hussein frequently, appearing in some extremely dangerous places where he was required to attend, such as the front line, the field hospital, and so on.
Mehail began to adapt more and more easily to his "new identity."
But even so, his "stand-in" career is still walking on thin ice.
Once, while visiting and comforting a field hospital, Mehail saw a soldier disabled by the carelessness of the doctor.
Originally, he only needed a few symbolic words of condolence, went through a formality, and the "performance" was over.
However, at that time, Mehail was too deep into the play, and he severely criticized the doctor and the hospital director.
After doing all this, he suddenly realized that he was not performing according to the predetermined "script", and his improvisation was likely to bring him life.)
He was terrified, afraid that if Saddam Hussein was unhappy, he and his family would suffer.
Sure enough, shortly after leaving the hospital, he received a stern warning from Saddam Hussein.
But just when Mehail was terrified, things took a turn for the better.
The day after Mehail received Saddam's warning, Iraqi media newspapers published a story about Mehail's anger at doctors at the hospital, which was hyped up by the Iraqi public.
So, when Meidhan Khayle came to Saddam hussein and prepared to accept the punishment, Saddam swept away his previous displeasure, praised him happily, and praised him as the most qualified stand-in.
In the face of Saddam's praise, Mehail felt not the joy of being exaggerated, but the sadness of the rest of his life.
At the same time, he has a lingering feeling about Saddam's uncertain personality, because he does not know which day, if he is not careful, he will fall to the ground.
It was at this time that he began to plant a seed in his heart that wanted to escape, but at that time, he had too many concerns, coupled with the strict guards around him, he could only give up temporarily.
We all know that president is a high-risk profession, especially for Saddam Hussein, who is everywhere, and assassinations and retaliation are commonplace, which is why he is looking for multiple stand-ins.
And Mehail, as his favorite stand-in, is in countless "performances", rubbing shoulders with the god of death, this kind of knife licking blood, let him sit on a needle all day long.
Once, during an inspection of the barracks, a bullet hit the leg of Mehaile, who was speaking the car, and for a while the army was distraught, and the injured Mehail was hurriedly removed from the scene by the secretary and officer on the side.
On another occasion, Mehail was ambushed on his way home from an inspection in place of Saddam Hussein, and the accompanying escorts were completely annihilated, while Mehail was captured alive by the Kurdish forces that ambushed them because of his special status.
The Kurdish forces triumphantly announced that they had successfully captured Saddam Hussein.
But then they were surprised to find that Saddam Hussein appeared in the public eye again, waving triumphantly to his people.
Realizing that they had been deceived, the Kurds angrily tortured Mehail, only to learn that he was just one of Saddam's stand-ins.
Fortunately, Saddam Hussein still cares about this stand-in.
In order to rescue Mekhail, he once negotiated with the Kurdish armed forces for 5 months.
But no matter what, Mehail is only one of his many stand-ins, and saddam Hussein will not give in to him in the face of key interests.
So the negotiations ended in failure.
For Saddam Hussein, the failure of the negotiations was nothing more than the loss of a stand-in, while Mehail was in danger of being torn apart.
In fact, the Kurdish forces are preparing to do the same.
Fortunately, when the angry Kurds prepared to kill Mehail, they were interrupted by an attack that came as it came.
It turned out that the government forces had launched air strikes and surrounded their base areas.
The sudden air raids caused chaos in the unprepared Kurdish forces for a while, and they scrambled to grab their weapons to resist, and they had no time to take care of Mehail.
Mehail took advantage of the chaos of the war and escaped, thinking that he could get rid of the fate of acting as a "puppet", but he did not know where Saddam Hussein got the news, and quickly brought him back to his side.
This encounter left a huge psychological shadow on Mehail, and once again he wanted to get rid of Saddam Hussein.
Just for the sake of his family, he had to endure the fear and anger in his heart and continue to dutifully play the role of the president's puppet.
But his grievances did not bring peace to his family.
One day, Mehail's brother-in-law was captured while joining the Iraqi Communist Party's resistance, and his wife and two children were brought under control as suspects.
When he heard the news, Mehail was so distraught that he immediately ran to Saddam hussein and asked for forgiveness, and Saddam hussein agreed.
But before Mehail could let go of his hanging heart, he received the bad news the next day that his wife and children had been killed.
Sources said that his wife and children were accidentally killed, and the murderer had committed suicide in fear of sin.
But Mehail knew very well that it was none other than Saddam's son, Uday, who had killed his wife and children, and that it was Saddam himself who had given the order.
The death of his wife and children was the last straw that overwhelmed Mehail, making him fully aware that he was nothing more than a dispensable pawn for Saddam Hussein.
Mehail, who has been secretly for his wife and children, could not get out of the blow of his wife and children's death for several months.
Even if Saddam Hussein kept sending people to comfort him, it could not relieve the great pain in his heart.
During that time, he was like a walking dead, living in a foggy state, and many times he could not tell whether he was Mehail or Saddam Hussein.
This incident once again strengthened his determination to escape Saddam Hussein and get rid of the status quo.
He knew that if he continued to act as Saddam's puppet, he would be ruthlessly abandoned the day he lost his usefulness, or he would have died in an assassination before that day.
03: Meet true love again and regain your life
When the Gulf War broke out in 1990, Mehail was wounded during a front-line inspection and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Here, Mehail met his second wife, Sofia, who was the head nurse at the hospital.
The gentle and kind Sophia, like the sun, brings warmth to Mehail in the darkness.
In their daily relationship, the two gradually rubbed out the spark of love.
With the nourishment of love, Mehail's long-silent heart once again ignited the desire for happiness and the yearning for freedom.
He told Sophia his identity unreservedly.
Sophia, who had been living in the United States before, was well aware of the feud between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and secretly contacted the U.S. Intelligence Agency in order to help Mehail.
The U.S. Intelligence Agency was overjoyed to learn of this and immediately began to plot against Mehail, which made Mehail's heart, which had always wanted to escape, want to move again.
The U.S. Intelligence Service rewarded Mehail handsomely and promised him better living conditions in the United States.
In order to be able to live with Sophia and to be able to regain a new life, Mehail finally agreed to the request of the United States.
We all know that Saddam Hussein was a very suspicious man, and he was flexible and thoughtful.
At that time, Mehail would immediately detect the slightest abnormality.
So even if he couldn't wait to escape Saddam Hussein's control, Mehail still had to continue to disguise himself before the time came.
This was for many years, during which Time Mehail dutifully played his stand-in according to Saddam's instructions without any problems.
Such boldness and calmness are really admirable.
Finally, in 1999, Mehail waited for news from the U.S. Intelligence Agency.
At the moment of receiving the news, his heart thumped with excitement.
He immediately packed his bags and sneaked to the United States with Sophia, completely getting rid of this 19-year nightmare.
Mehail, who came to settle in the United States with Sophia, had to hide in anonymity because of the sensitive political environment. During this time, he provided a lot of information to the U.S. army about Saddam Hussein and helped them fight against Saddam's forces.
It wasn't until Saddam Hussein was captured that he truly got out of the shadows of the past 19 years and reappeared in the sun with great generosity.
After that, he gave an interview to the American "Pyramid" newspaper for the first time as Mekhail, and frankly revealed his identity as Saddam's "shadow" in front of the public.
Later, Saddam Wasdam was sentenced to hanging, and Mehail could finally really get rid of the past and be himself back.
After many tribulations, Mehail finally lifted the thick clouds of his life, like the fairy tale princess and prince ending, living happily with his wife Sophia.
Difficulties and setbacks in life are inevitable, many times blind patience can not be exchanged for corresponding returns, and will not make any changes to the status quo, only bravely face everything, boldly make changes, in order to truly control their own lives.
In reality, we may not experience a legendary life like Mehail, but as long as we encounter things, we can be as calm and composed as him, actively looking for a response plan, not compromising, not admitting our fate, and one day we can also turn against the wind and harvest everything we want.