One thing to keep in mind (which may or may not be relevant) is that it's highly difficult to find someone who has been blown to bits, and not really worth spending much time trying.
he had to pick on the crippled kid down the street.
If Saddam was a "crippled kid down the street" why did we have troops in Saudi Arabia protecting that regime, and why did we spent tons of time and resources patrolling his airspace and occasionally bombing his country?
Contrary to popular belief the war against Iraq never actually ended and it was about damn time to finish it. We can't blockade some country halfway around the world for decades and decades and it was a bizarre thing to even try, when the alternative (ousting Saddam) was so obviously the right thing to do. I will never understand why people think "just blockade the country for decades on end" was a preferable and more moral solution than invade-and-oust.