From the oil industry to education, the army to the economy, a country once one of the most advanced in the Arab world lies in ruins.

Such is the legacy of Saddam, the man who sought to ensure his place in history through military conquest and grandiose schemes such as rebuilding Babylon with bricks stamped "In the era of Saddam Hussein", mimicking the achievements of the legendary King Nebuchadnezzar.

He had barely become president in 1979 after rising swiftly through the ranks as a ruthless man of action, than he launched an invasion of neighbouring Iran that raged for eight years and cost an estimated one million lives.

Consolidating his power and with an eye on greater oil wealth and a better maritime outlet on the Gulf, Saddam unleashed his army on Kuwait in August 1990, totally misreading US resolution.

His forces were quickly routed by a US-led coalition that included much of the Arab world, but the Iraqi strongman clung on in Baghdad to defy world demands to disarm.

UN sanctions wrecked any hope of real development and the country, isolated and weak, was left on a course of slow death.

However, the regime lost none of its anger against the West and much of the Arab world. It raged daily in lost causes, tirelessly rallying people to Saddam's side and brutally snuffed out any dissent, until the final catastrophic showdown with the hyperpower began on March 20.

Three weeks later the regime collapsed like a house of cards as the leadership fled.

Not surprisingly after so many years under the boot of the Baath party, Baghdadis quickly resorted to widespread looting, leaving a trail of wreckage through the capital.

The education sector, where Iraqis once stood out proudly providing distinguished doctors, engineers and scientists, offers a quick lesson in the country's decline.

Resources dried up, sanctions bit deeply and the best fled abroad. Those who remained became virtual paupers reduced to scrambling to hear of progress in the outside world.

The US administration has declared it needs to erase urgently Saddam's militaristic indoctrination from Iraq's schools.

The United States Agency for International Development has decided the whole educational system needs to be revamped to build a foundation for democracy and is reported to be about to award a 65-million-dollar contract for everything from books and pencils to blackboards.

Saddam's hand was everywhere, and particularly in schools.

Baghdad's Bilat al-Shuhadaa primary school rebuilt under an imposing monument in memory of the 34 children who died there when an Iranian missile hit in 1987 is as much if not more a shrine to Saddam as to the lost lives.

Textbooks overflow with adulation for Saddam and calls to fight to defend the regime against enemies.

The walls bore reminders of the lost children but even more pictures of Saddam. Barely a song was sung or a poem read which did not praise the "great leader".

In oil, the great wealth which could secure the future for the new Iraq, the industry is antiquated and on the verge of collapse after years of over-pumping.

After three wars in two decades and 12 years of harsh UN sanctions, Iraq lacks the technical and financial means to exploit fully the 112 billion barrels of proven petroleum reserves.

Investment required to bring production capacity back to the pre-1991 Gulf War level of 3.5 million barrels per day is estimated at three to five billion dollars.

But another 30 to 40 billion dollars will be needed to boost capacity to between six and eight million bpd to give the economy the fillip to cover development projects.

One of the men tipped to lead a new Iraq, former Iraqi foreign minister Adnan Pachachi has estimated it will take some 80 billion dollars in the first year alone to rebuild Iraq.

The value of the currency has plummeted from more three dollars before 1990 to 2,000 dinars for one dollar, the middle class reduced to poverty living off UN aid and undernourished children left to beg on the streets.

"We need massive infusion of capital from outside, some kind of a Marshall Plan, in which various countries of the world, including Arab countries and industrialised countries like Japan, Germany and the US, contribute," Pachachi said, referring to the massive US programme that rebuilt western Europe after World War II.

SPACE.WIRE