Oh, yeah. The "Saddam took up knitting" theory. As for Iraq being "devoid of influence," please take that amazing theory up with the rest of the nations in the Middle East.

If I remember correctly, there wasn't an overwhelming drive among Middle East leaders to oust Saddam by war. Sure, they seemed to want him gone, but he was more of a burr on their trousers than a gun to their head, from what I can gather.

It's also my impression that they ultimately acquiesced because when the 900-lb gorilla (us) takes to the war path, the prudent thing is to get out of the way.

...then at worst we have freed 22 million people from a dynasty of raving lunatics.

Maybe I'm just in a pessimistic mood, but it seems to me the jury's very much still out on this one. We've freed them from a number of things, reliable electricity included. I just think we may have quite a long way to go before we can honestly claim to have done any real favors for the Iraqi people.