[justa-hairyape]

(Nevertheless, he would not use them against a foe armed with nuclear weapons: brutal dictators are realists, and therefore devoid of suicidal tendencies.)

Earth to bonehead - Saddam has fired scuds at a nearby nation that has nuclear weapons. That nation is Israel.

Additionally, Saddam is not the entire problem within Iraq. The problem was the Baath Marxist Socialist Party which gave Saddam the ability to assume dictatorial power. That party game into power by killing its legitimate opposition within the previous goverment.

[Clemenza]

Better BAATHIST than Islamists. Iraq is one of the few Arab nations where Christians, Athiests and Zoroasterians are tolerated and serve in the government.

Even if Iraq were Islamist, it is not the main threat to the US in the region.

[traditionalist]

Earth to bonehead - Saddam has fired scuds at a nearby nation that has nuclear weapons. That nation is Israel.

Seeing as how those scuds were armed with conventional warheads, and were not weapons of mass destruction, I fail to see your point.