A fierce loyalist to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Rashid was also a tough and competent general.

[1] Middle Eastern military and political affairs analyst Kenneth M. Pollack listed Rashid as an example of Arab generals in recent decades who had proven to be "first-rate generals", listing him alongside Syria's Ali Aslan and Jordan's Zaid ibn Shaker.

[4] During the first two years of the war with Iran, Saddam Hussein began to promote competent commanders over and against those who merely served as political cronies.

However, Saddam wished to focus on the southern front of the country, in order to convey to the Iranians that their goal of taking Basra was an impossibility.

At 8:30 PM on 25 February, Rashid received a phone call from Saddam ordering the army to retreat from Kuwait.

[16] After the war, Rashid was removed from his position as Chief of Staff,[17] afterward once again made commander of the Republican Guard,[18] and served as a special military advisor to Saddam Hussein.

[20] By 2003, Rashid was secretary-general of the Armed Forces Command, and part of Saddam Hussein's "inner circle" that planned a defense in the face of a potential attack from the United States and her allies.

[21] At the time of the campaign Hussein was serving as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Armed Forces.

[22] After his sentence was read out Hussein, alongside fellow former General Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, spoke out.

[21] The Council reportedly argued that Tai and Hussein should not be executed as, being military personnel at the time, they were merely following orders.