Who did Saddam allow to oppose him during his reign? Sometimes a strongman is what a country needs, especially one with over five different religious sects. I served my first tour in Korea when Park Chung-Hee was their strongman and met him more than once. He was what was needed in that time period but would not work there now.
I get the argument about the stabilizing dictator. I wasn’t in favor of the removal of Mubarak nor Qaddafi for that matter. But Iraq had serious potential that was squandered by a narcissistic charlatan. The West could have easily prevented ISIS penetration into Iraq.