Will, for me it's hard to think about how much better off we would all be if Saddam were still in power, because we all are so keenly aware of how bad they were when he WAS in power! I mean sure, a lot of things were better than they are now, but that's not a reflection of how good they were before, it's a measure of how positively AWFUL they have become.
For my peace of mind, I go a lot farther back than just Saddam and 2003. I'd look at what might have happened if we, the people of the US and our representatives in government, actually believed enough in the efficacy and power of republican democracy, if we had hailed the 1951 election of Mohammad Mossadegh as a blossoming of democracy in the Middle East, instead of overthrowing him in favor of the repressive despot Pahlavi, that's where I look for the root of the problem we're facing now.
Because you know, how do you erase two generations of wrong-headedness and ignorance? We Americans cluck and tisk about how those savages in the Oil-Rich Nations can't simmer down enough to have a democracy. Over there, they have a much longer history, stretching back many more generations, implanted with the memory of how we savages occupied their homelands and appropriated their natural resources in the name of colonialism. A history that is still being written.
Our buffer against Iran is the buffer of Strength Through Peace. When we start respecting other nations' right to self-determination, and leave the job of improving the world up to the world instead of up to us alone, then we can expect to live in a safer and more secure world.
Not before.
Interestingly, about 63% of Iraqis feel that the Americans should have never invaded, i.e. depose Saddam...47% want us to leave immediately. So how is the United States viewed by those we "Liberated"?
