Somewhat frightningly, it's not the only expression of that opinion I've heard around the Net. "Stability uber alles." I'm sure the trains ran on time under Saddam, too. It was "peaceful," if you were Sunni. Not so much for Shiites, Kurds, Marsh Arabs, and others.

The casualty count has a long way to go before it hits Saddam's total.

"The power was on"--in Baghdad. Not a lot of other places, but nobody cared about them. Baghdad is getting shorted now because power is finally getting to all of Iraq. Pre-war levels were about 4,000 MW nationwide, of which 2,500 were in Baghdad. Hours of electricity/day nationwide were 4-8, and 16-24 in Baghdad.

The total MW now is 4,400 (hadn't seen THAT in the news, had you?). The nation as a whole now gets about 11 hours of electricity a day, compared to Baghdad's 6.4. With the rising standards of living, demand has gone up faster than production capacity.