The question "How is Iraq better?":

Iraq has a constitution approved by Iraqi people.

The Kurds have agreed to try to be part of Iraq, rather than a separate country. This would been probably impossible with Saddam or his sons as the leader of Iraq. Not merely because Saddam was a lousy leader, but also his history of his brutal treatment of the Kurds

Iraqi govt is not paying the families of suicide bombers.

The violence in country is not caused by the govt, so the govt is not a force which feared, but instead is force which could characterize as being the the "same side" of most Iraqis. This is not to say that there is no govt corruption or that factions of the govt may consider their interests above the interest most Iraqis. There is a lot to say about this, but to keep it brief, ask yourself whether you would prefer to live under dictatorship [even a "nicer one"] compared to living in a democratic state.

Iraq now has a free press.

Iraq now has a free market- for example you can now buy a car- and lots of other things. Also the Iraqi govt is taking steps to reduce the blackmarket that any state control market will create.

The govt is spending more resources on public infrastructure. Allowing areas to more equal access to water and sewage. Electrical power is more evenly divided. Security forces are being paid more, so that there is less need for these forces to operate by bribes/"protection money" [and the corruption this breeds].

Iraqis are more free to interact with the rest of the world. Individuals can travel more freely and political fiqures can interact with other countries.

Iraqis under Saddam regime had one of world's lowest life expectancy, and is there good reason expect that this will improve. In other words, Iraqis in general could expect that they will live longer and have a more complete life. This could be summarize by simple fact that no hardship is worse than enslavement. Or, people pay good money to climb Mt Everest- and death and suffering is something they can expect.

Even if the media coverage of Iraq was excellent, one can not expect that one can have a full understanding of "situation in Iraq". As it is, the media coverage is poor- and this applies to any topic. It has bias, it generally has an agend- and it's more to do with a circus act than informing the public.

On top of the poor media coverage, you have the enemy using the media to spread it's message. You have a land which the people speak different languages, has a different cultures, and different worldview, than compared whose attempting to cover it. So if you really need to know what is better about Iraq, you need to have lived in Iraq before and now- and of course this still has limitations and it will depend upon who are [an American tourist or an Iraqi farmer, bureaucrat, a policemen, ect.].

There are a couple of Iraqi dentists who are brothers and have been blogging generally about this:
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/