[kstrauser]

> and overthrew the nationalist, secular leader

Two things can be true at once:

1. The US invaded on false pretenses. We should never have been there.

2. Saddam Hussein and his family were brutal dictators who shouldn't be mourned. We didn't exactly topple the leadership of, say, Sweden.

Hussein was a secular leader in much the same way as Stalin was. Their horrific abuses weren't driven by religion, but that's little comfort to the lives they destroyed.