Better off with Saddam?
Absolutely better off.
If any state leaders were going to be killed, we should have started with King Fahd and President Musharraf. But that was unnecessary.
If, as should have been done, OBL and his crew were vaporized at Tora Bora by 4 W-80 warheads, Saddam would have become our very best friend the very next day.
And, once he became our very best friend the very next day, he would have eradicated every trace of AQ thinking in Iraq in about a week, at zero cost to us in blood or treasure.