Saddam Hussein , 20 years after his regime was toppled, is still a beloved and popular leader in Jordan, and his images are even found on car stickers or cellphone covers.

And while the symbols and images associated with his period of rule have disappeared from public life in Iraq , pictures of the late president are still widespread in Jordan.

On March 20, 2003, US President George W. Bush announced the launch of an operation he called "Operation Iraqi Freedom", and the deployment of about 150,000 American and 40,000 British soldiers in Iraq, under the pretext of the presence of weapons of mass destruction that were never found.

Three weeks later, Saddam appeared on April 9, wandering in the Adhamiya district of Baghdad, surrounded by dozens of Iraqis cheering for him, hours before the announcement of the fall of Baghdad and his regime.

He went into hiding after that for eight months before being found by the US military, tried and then executed in December 2006.

Most Jordanians remember Saddam's pride for his nationalist positions and his resistance to Western intervention in the Middle East, and most importantly his support for the Palestinian cause, while most of them do not know the presidents of Iraq after him.

"Tens of thousands of Jordanians graduated from Iraqi universities in various fields during Saddam's era with free scholarships," prominent MP Khalil Attia told AFP.

He adds that Saddam "supported the uprising and used to pay the family of the Palestinian martyr 25,000 dollars and rebuild his house if the enemy (Israel) demolished it."

According to Attia, Saddam "gives 10,000 dollars to the prisoner and the wounded, and takes care of the treatment of the wounded in Jordan's hospitals." He also gave Jordan quantities of oil for free and others at preferential prices.

Therefore, he believes that it is natural for "Jordanians to adore him, not to forget him, and to raise pictures of him in loyalty to this heroic leader."

Tens of thousands of Palestinians and Jordanians studied in Iraqi universities for free, when education was advanced and well funded.

Salama al-Balawi, 67, who wore a red keffiyeh and carried various banknotes from that era, says, "Saddam was an honorable and honest Arab man whose positions were honorable."

The brown Jordanian, who used to work as a contractor and visited Baghdad in the eighties, added, "Despite the war with Iran, Iraq was a country of riches, but after Saddam, the corrupt plundered it."

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said last month in a television interview that "since 2003, the money that has been wasted exceeds 600 billion dollars."

He added that this money went to "the corrupt and parties in power ... and some of it was shared between political parties and influential people" and others were smuggled abroad.

Transparency International, which monitors corruption, ranks Iraq today among the 25 most corrupt countries in the world.

Shaher Abu Sharkh, 67, who sells mobile accessories in a small shop in central Amman, says, "Any Jordanian knows that Saddam Hussein is a brave, Arab and nationalist leader who defended Arab causes valiantly. We all love him."

"What happened was not the fall of Saddam's regime, but the fall of Iraq. Unfortunately, Iraq ended after Saddam and was systematically destroyed," he added, holding mobile covers bearing pictures of Saddam.

He believed that "most Iraqis now know the value of Saddam, and the prestige and dignity of Iraq during his reign."

As for the seventy-year-old Zuhair al-Amleh, who sells old books in the Hashemite Square in Amman, he says, "Iraq was a beacon of knowledge and a country of goodness and glory."

He added, "Unfortunately, it cannot return to what it was, because it lacks a leader. Those present now are sectarians and agents of Iran."

The American invasion launched the worst phases of violence in Iraq's history, starting with sectarian fighting, de-Baathification, and reprisals by Shiite militias who abused power, all the way to the dominance of the Islamic State.

In most cases, those involved in the violence from those militias were opponents of Saddam, belonging to conservative and Islamic parties. They had sought refuge for a long time in Iran, and some of them fought with it against their country in the eighties.

From 2003 to 2011, the date of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed, according to the "Iraq War Victims" organization. In contrast, the United States lost nearly 4,500 personnel in Iraq.

Although Iraq is an oil-rich country, a third of its 42 million people still live in poverty and high levels of unemployment.

Attia says, "The main reason for the Jordanians' love for Saddam is that he represented them as a hero and a savior leader, who had a project for the advancement of the Arab nation."

He added that "Saddam preserved the unity of Iraq, and made it a beacon of science, health and industry."

He is also "the only Arab leader who established a military manufacturing base from bullets to missiles, and bombed the Zionist entity (Israel) with 39 missiles made by Iraq."

After Washington announced the launch of Operation Desert Storm against Iraq in 1991, the latter responded by bombing Israeli cities with missiles.

Anas Al-Nahhas, 19, says while arranging a number of cell phone covers that bear different pictures of the late Iraqi president, "Saddam Hussein Saqr Al-Arab. If he were alive, many things would not have happened."

He refers to "the daring of the occupation (Israel) against our people in Palestine to terrible degrees, the fall of regimes, the war in Syria and Yemen, and the humiliation and humiliation that the Arabs are currently experiencing."

For his part, a former Iraqi diplomat who worked at the Iraqi embassy in Amman for many years told AFP, "The Arab people in general viewed President Saddam as the leader of the nation and the real and realistic outlet for what the sons of the Arab nation want."

He added, "The Arabs now wish that there would be one or more leaders who would raise the nation's voice and end the state of darkness, brokenness, decline, and submission."