Saddam was a terrible dictator, but what the US created was much, much worse.<p>We can learn something from Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Toppling a dictator doesn&#x27;t automatically create a new, civilized society. Even promising uprisings like the Libyan uprising of 2011 don&#x27;t guarantee a good outcome.<p>In Iraq, the US created a huge power vacuum by decapitating the state — removing not just Saddam, but the entire civil and military leadership, through Paul Bremer&#x27;s completely misguided process of &quot;de-Baathification&quot;. There was no power structure left to ensure the continuity of Iraqi society. Even clerk-level Baathists were dismissed, people in charged of everything from health care to utilities. It&#x27;s like nobody on the US side had studied any history whatsoever.