Sadly, it seems that many of these populations are incapable of living in a society that is not a police state or a dictatorship. It may have something to do with the nature of Islam (since its ideal society is a theocracy administered under a very harsh legal system).
There was little random violence under Saddam, but a lot of state-sponsored violence. We thought that when we got rid of Saddam, people would seize the chance to live in a society that was not a dictatorship and where they were not subject to random violence and brutality. Some of them do appear to want this, but others seem to see the removal of the dictator as simply permission to start their own violent campaign for dominance. Perhaps it is the result of decades of life under a dictatorship, which deprived people of any understanding of how to live in a more open society, or perhaps it is the result of the internal dynamic of Islam itself.
'Persian' Iran being the prime example for the Muhammadan theocracy and Syria being the harsh police state.