Maybe short term. But in the long run, eliminating the harbors for vermin reduces their numbers. Driving them from their havens makes it easier to kill them.
There are no proven links between Saddam and the Al-Qaeda.
There don't have to be. We declared war on terrorism, not al-Qaida. There are more terrorist organizations than bin Laden's.
Before the UN sanctions Saddam had created a country with the one of the highest standards of living in the Middle East.
So? We never said we would pursue terrorists only into those countries who live in mud huts. It's just as easy to bomb a brick building as a yurt. And a developed nation has much more to lose. It's what the military calls a "target-rich environment."
The threat that Iraq poses to us is tiny.
The threat Hitler posed to the US was tiny too. However, his threat to humanity was more than we could bear.
The US has a deplorable record of foreign intervention over the past 50 years.
"Deplorable" by whose standards? We have installed regimes around the world that were friendly to American interests, and thereby prevented all-out war while still protecting ourselves. That isn't a particularly dismal record. And even if we've made mistakes, our record isn't as lamentable as that of the socialists and petty tyrants we've deposed.