Saddam was a thug and despot. However, the war to depose him was just that. It had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction, nor islamist terror-- Saddam was only slighter more muslim than the pope (Hardly a poster child for seperation of church and state, he did run a secular government, in the midst of muslim theocracies of various strengths). Only his security apparatus prevented Iraq from being the target of Al-Quaida attacks.
A real source of problems in Iraq is that the US did in Iraq what they did not do to either Germany or Japan. After WWII, the allies removed the leaders from power, but left card-carrying civil servants in their jobs. All Baathists in Iraq were suddenly out of work. Transistioning to a democracy, or any form of government is much easier if you are transitioning from another government. Once you create anarchy, it is really hard to replace it with anything.
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