Recommended By Nine Out Of Ten Dictators
When I heard that the Iraqi bunker that was the first target of the air campaign was built by a German firm specifically for Saddam I wasn't surprised. Who else would you want building you a bunker if not the Krauts? I even considered doing a satirical piece on the German company pitching their business by bragging about their long history of bunker design and construction (You've heard of the Fuhrer bunker of course? That was my grandfather's baby.) But as is often the case truth is stranger than fiction:
According to Germany's Focus magazine, the $150 million bunker, designed to withstand missile attacks and bomb blasts, was built by German firm Boswau and Knauer, who built air-raid shelters for Hitler's Third Reich in World War II.
Saddam wasn't going to put all his eggs in one basket though and just to be sure he also had a bunker built by Yugoslavians:
When Saddam visited Yugoslavia in 1976 — he was Iraq's vice president at the time — Tito bragged to him about his luxuriously appointed bunker, which was built to house 500 people and survive a nuclear attack.
Saddam became president in 1979, and during the 1980s Tito sent the same engineers who built his bunker to build a smaller version for the Iraqi leader near the Republican Palace and the 14 July Bridge in central Baghdad.
He was also considering a French bunker design fully ventilated to allow smoking, with a large wine cellar, and a screening room with a complete collection of Jerry Lewis movies. But he found the lack of shower facilities off putting and turned it down.
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