It's not a popular thing to say, but at times I've wondered if, brutal as he was, Saddam might not have been the best thing for Iraq.  He secularized the laws and modernized the society.  

Is Democracy necessarily a step up in a place where most of the people have ignorant and incorrect beliefs?  Hell, Democracy works poorly enough here in the US, how is it going to work over in Iraq.  

Anyway, no surprise to me that this is a step backwards.  I'm not going to get too upset about it, seeing as the damage is already done.  I just think in the end the Iraqis could very well end up worse off than under Saddam.  Actually, that's what I've been thinking all along, and why I never could buy the "humanitarian" argument, even if I set aside all of my other beliefs about the war being wrong.