The al-Had monitoring stations can intercept and locate clandestine radio transmitters within 30 seconds of the commencement of transmission. International direct dialing has been banned since 1995, with all calls being routed through an operator-assisted exchange so they could be monitored. With so many informers permeating the society, it is no wonder that an uprising is doomed before it starts. The insular and sectarian Baath Party invents its enemies. The Iraqi State is grounded in a triangle of violence, fear, and complicity surrounding the power center.
Violence generates the fear that creates the complicity that establishes and sustains the power.
All decisions radiate down from Saddam and nobody questions Saddam's authority. In short, it's a paranoid rat's nest of cruelty and contradictions. Instead of showing gratitude for Iraq's defense of Sunni Arabs against Persian Shi'ites, they demanded immediate repayment of their war loans. To make matters worse, Iraq found out that Kuwait had been taking advantage of Iraq's distraction over their war with Iran by siphoning off oil on the Iraqi side of the Rumaila oil fields. Additionally, the Arab nations he was indebted to were forcing down the price of oil by pumping far beyond their quotas, making it far more difficult for Iraq to earn the money to pay back their loans.