Almost up to the point the bombs began to fall in Bagdad, Saddam could have stopped the war by giving in to the UN (even if he did not mean to follow up on anything)
Saddam (for reasons that I can not understand) thought President Bush was bluffing. He lost that bet.
At this point, I will let history sort it out.
Saddam was even given the chance to walk away, taking sanctuary with another country, and he chose not to. You begin to lose a little credibility after a decade and numerous violations of UN resolutions. His last attempt to save his own skin met with failure for good reasons.