Is it true that Iraq was safer when Saddam was ruling the country?
439967
No -- he was responsible for genocide. The most conservative estimates place the death count at his hands somewhere near a million lives. Though many of those deaths were people of other nationalities, a very large percentage were in fact Iraqis who either opposed him, or were conceived of as a threat. No one was safe -- not even his most trusted advisors.
737673
No, they found some degraded chemical and biological weapons from the 1980's Iran - Iraq war. Saddam had enriched uranium from his reactor, but it was under seal of the UN inspectors, and had been inspected right before the invasion. In any event, this uranium was NOT weapons grade.
1128703
Kicking Saddam Hussein off his "throne", a man who killed the most Muslims since Genghis Khan, a man who killed and overtook and attacked other Muslim countries Iran and Kuwait, sorry there can be no defense of Saddam. Iraq now has a democracy, the people have voted for new leaders a number of times creating a parliament, a Cabinet , and a President. The country and our efforts haven't been perfect, but the country has been brought up from the days of Saddam's sons pulling random women off the streets and raping them at will, shooting and torturing Olympic athletes because they lost, killing Shiites and Kurds with poison gas and slaughter. Unfortunately, Saddam is all most Iraqis know, therefore they may erroneously believe brutality and government go hand- in -hand. Like I said, we haven't been perfect, but generally we have tried to help the Iraqi people, even though many will be happy to see us go, it'll then be up to them to make a functional democracy work. We'll see how many, then say, the Americans pulled out too soon! The day will come when the Americans can't be blamed any more ,then what? It won't be American democracy anymore , but Iraqi, we'll see how well it goes.
841781
Yes, the United States of America and her allies must all pitch in and help rebuild Iraq. When Saddam Hussein first came into power, he was Mr. Nice Guy but once the 1980's came around, he went from being Mr. Nice Guy to becoming Mr. Not So Nice Guy and started to build palaces for himself and had his people live in ruins. Not that Hussein is no longer the President, Iraq is moving everyday towards democracy. If you want to hear the Truh of the Democracy taken shape in Iraq, I recommend that you watch a show titled The 700 Club.
789887
It's much worse after. Saddam is evil. Everyone was afraid. When we invaded and captured Saddam, Iraq was a leaderless country. A very easy target and a logical choice for terrorists to occupy. Three years later there is still major upheaval throughout. \nReally, how can a country that has lived under dictatorship, know exactly what all a democracy truly means? Most of us who are used to a democratic republic don't completely understand. We need to begin our exit strategy soon. \nThere are basically three groups of different people living in Iraq. None of them can agree with the other two, nor do any of them trust one another to be fair and impartial to the rest. Without impartiality, and fairness a democracy is doomed to fail.
622988
Certainly. Iraq, for instance, was secular before the invasion and Turkey still is.
866402
Yes it was just. Saddam Hussein illegally invaded another country with the intent of stealing their oil and land.\nThe world united against him for this unjust act he committed.\n\n    This is in no way relevant to todays war.
785966
The victory was in removing Saddam Hussein from power and giving that country a chance to be a a real country, where the people can live in freedom from oppression.  From taking a dictator out of power and unable to kill entire cultures within their borders and stop people from disappearing from their families.  We are allowing to to develop their OWN Govt and not law set up by our country.  It will allow their people to pursue their dreams, get education, and feel safe at night in their own homes.  If you cant understand, imagine all the privileges that you have, nice things in your homes, and to be able to go out to where u wanted and do what you wanted, all taken away and living in fear everyday.   So what do you think the US means by victory in Iraq!
773990
yes look at Iraq under Saddam and the lawlessness caused by the American invasion
874737
I'm out here in Iraq and trust me... please trust me when i tell you that it's not all the same or to prevent genocide. Keep in mind that most if not all countries were forged by wars. Specially our great U.S. of A. Need less to say that I pray  everyday for myself and my brothers and sisters in arms because Sh!t is going to hit the fan once saddam is executed...Once more this is nothing like Hotel Rwanda, nothing all,
860659
Of course Iraqis are better off since we invaded and occupied uh i mean liberated them,  just ask the survivors. \n\nRepublicans are the party of smear and fear
193571
Iraq is slowly but surely turning into a self governing democracy that will in the near future be capable of defending itself and participating and working with nations worldwide economically and as an ally in the war against terror. the Iraqi people will be free to pursue the freedoms that we here in America have long taken for granted.Iraq does indeed have a bright future ahead and because they do our future here is America is brighter as well.~
125779
yes\n\nsure happy ,saddam is a big bucher & criminal ,1.5 million Iraqi killed by him and his fellows
891944
YES \n\nA major difference is in the censorship of information. I frequently have News broadcasts blocked by Alerts from the emergency broadcast system. A typical jam of the system goes something like this ( Today Sunni gunme bzzzzt bzzzzt bzzzzt THIS IS A TEST)\n\nOne day while watching BBC there were 5 emergency broadcast tests.\n\nCompare that to open and free information in 2000. I remember watching a History program about digging up relics from Babylon. Looked pretty normal. Even the Hans Blick WMD searches were fairly normal Baghdad was a thriving prosperous community.\n\nGo big Red Go
541874
iraq has a chance if they let their government run the country without interference fron the religious zealots...by the way..we are not trying to impose democracy on them, we are trying to bring freedom from a tyrant to them..if you think about it..we would have allready been out of there if it wasnt for the fascist terrorists the liberals love making excuses for and trying to appease\niraq has a better educated class of people than most middle east countries and intelligence is a prerequisite for wanting to be free...its only when the religious leaders and civilian leaders and family leaders work in concert to keep their citizens oppressed and out of the loop of information that a society stays behind the world that is succeeding...\nif iraq wqants to come into the 21st century and use information the right way instead of stifling it, then it will eventually become successful
303048
Actually, Saddam seized power all by himself, locking up and in some cases executing members of his own party in order to declare himself dictator.  The US did not do that; Saddam did, and the Iraqi people let him.  Get your facts straight.\n\nIraq before Saddam was already a bit of a basket-case.  The regional and sectarian splits that we see today were definitely around back then.  If Saddam had not seized power, somebody else might have.  The government was pretty corrupt, like most in that part of the world.  Iraq had joined other Arab states in attacking Israel, so it is likely that a Saddam-less Iraq would have continued in its hostility to Israel, possibly supporting terrorist groups like its neighbors Iran and Syria.  It is difficult to say how exactly things might have turned out, but there is no good reason to believe that it would be much different.
788431
Before we invaded, Saddam kept things prettry well locked down.  But the idiot neo-cons who run our foreign policy just had to take him out.  Since we invaded, it has become a training ground for terrorists from all over the world.  And, the government is equivalent to a house of cards as far as maintaining order, which could spread to neighboring countries.