To get back to the original question and away from WW2, I would say that the invasion definitely wasn't worth it to anybody, other than oil companies and military contractors. At the time of Abu Ghraib scandal the joke doing the rounds in Iraq was the prison is doing business as usual, just under new management. That perhaps gives the man on the street view of the American liberation.

For all that is written about Iraq I'm shocked how little is about the suffering of the Iraqi people. They suffered in the Iran War, they suffered through 13 years of crippling sanctions, they suffered in the Iraq invasion, they suffered after the invasion and are facing the prospect of 10+ years more suffering. Suffering for 27 years and no end in sight. And now the focus of US attention is on how much Iraq is costing America and the 4,000 US fatalities. How many Iraqis have died?

Life under Saddam was not so bad; livings standard were good (until the Iranian war), religious freedom, women rights etc. Compare that to our friend and ally Saudi Arabia where Christians are arrested for worshipping and women aren't allowed to even drive a car. True Saddam had his secret police/torture chamber and came down hard on any who threatened his rule. Isn’t that's the same under any dictator. Saudi Arabia has is secret police (not to mention religious police) and its torture is so effective the US "renders" its prisoners there. When I lived in Saudi people would look with envy at the freedoms and lifestyle enjoyed by Iraqis under Saddam. Saddam at least held the country together, which is not easy as the US is finding out and yes he did that by "whatever means necessary".

Iraqis may wonder where it all went wrong and Saddam must have wondered how he went from hero to zero so fast. When Iraq went to war with Iran the USA lavished praise on him and armed his military. But the Kuwait invasion was to change all that. After the war Kuwait demanded repayment of war loans, lowered oil prices thus reducing Iraqi revenues and even stole Iraqi oil by slant drilling into Iraqi oil fields. Not to mention Iraq had historic territorial claims on Kuwait. Iraq was in a difficult position and Saddam wanted to improve the welfare of his people, unlike many dictators who impoverish their own people to enrich their Swiss Bank accounts.

The US ambassador April Galaspie gave Saddam the infamous green light by saying "we (the USA) have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait" which indicated the USA would not get involved. (http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/glaspie.html) Then the shit hits the fan for Iraq. Incidentally, it’s no surprise Saddam with a weak army and impoverished nation wanted the Iranians to believe he had WMD. What is a surprise is that CIA agents were on “independent” UN weapons inspections.

I cannot help but see oil and US Presidents, from an oil state and with extensive oil interests and connections, at work behind the scenes here. I would say most Iraqis would prefer life under Saddam to life now and think that had sanctions been lifted then life could have been back to normal and no worse than under any Arab state.

Saddam ordered a reprisal against a village whose people tried to assassinate him. Saddam was executed for the reprisals. Bush ordered a reprisal against a country whose president tried to assassinate his father. Bush was re-elected for the invasion.

It's a strange world we live in.