Better yet, let's see what the Iraqi people themselves think. According to this poll taken in June 2006 (look on pages 44-45 of the PDF), only 41% of the population thinks the country is headed in the right direction. Of those, only 13% said it was headed in the right direction because of the removal of the former regime. Thirteen percent of 41% is 5.33%.

In other words, only 5.33% of Iraqis think that the country is headed in the right direction because Saddam is no longer in power.

--Socialist With A Gold Card

Better off? You think they're better off with somewhere between 43,000 and 48,000 civilians killed due directly to our little adventure in Mesopotamia? Or do you think they're better off with the country already engaged in a low-level civil war that verges on a full-scale one, again due directly to our intervention? Or do you think they're better off with only 11 hours of electricity per day?

If you think that's "better off," then you have some pretty strange standards.

Of course Saddam was a bad guy, just like most of the rulers in the Middle East, and I hope the sumbitch is executed. The Iraqis might become better off in a few decades, but it sure as hell won't be because of our presence in their country.

On the other hand, they do seem to have learned some pretty creative new torture techniques. Maybe those goons at Abu Ghraib did manage to teach the Iraqis some new and useful job skills after all.

--Socialist With A Gold Card

The Coalition of the Willing -- "Proudly creating a civilian toll which would make gassing your own people redundant!"

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On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls, it is always morning. --H. Thoreau

You conveniently omitted the rest of my sentence, in which I said I hope he gets the death penalty. I didn't say he's no worse than what they have now, I said torture is more common now than it was under Saddam. Read carefully, please, and do not make the mistake of attributing words to me which I did not write.

Saddam was responsible for the deaths of half a million Iraqi people, while ruling over the rest of Iraq with a Stalin like visegrip of terror

That's true, and the US (specifically, the Reagan administration) supported him while he did it. The Reaganites helped him murder those people. 

And, as a matter of fact, Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the US, and its overall life expectancy ranks just seven countries lower than ours. Draw your own conclusions.

--Socialist With A Gold Card