Reality Check for Operation Iraqi Freedom II

[Ser Clegane]

contrary to what the propaganda machines have spun up, sad-man wasnt all that bad for a brutal dictator. He was responsible for the huge increase in education and health care in Iraq, nationalizing the oil industry which led to record profits, and while he stole alot of it for himself, there was great investment in infastructure and the economy making it the most propsperous, literate, and educated middle eastern country aside from israel. Sure, he was brutal against his enemies, but the vast majority of iraqis had nothing to fear from his rule and most of the clamp-downs came only after the repressive sanctions were imposed by the US and others. As has recently been brought up, we were bombing them for the past 10 years.

The funny (or perhaps not so funny) thing is, that you could say almost say the same thing about Hitler in Germany - great investments (Autobahn!), most Germans could do fine (as long as they did not decide to develop an opinion that went against the regime), actually things just got really bad when the neighbouring countries decided that they did not like being invaded.
And Hitler probably took less money for personal purposes than Saddam.

I share your sentiment though that living in Iraq or more specific in some areas of Iraq (e.g., Bagdad) did not really get better for a lot of people.