“Were we right to take out Saddam?”
I think it was a major strategic error.
It resulted from lack of strategic understanding, confused thinking, and fantasy concepts.
The enemy was (and is) Wahabi/Deobandi Islam. Victory would be defined as we stop (permanently) worrying about them, because they start worrying about and continue to worry about us.
Wahabi/Deobandi Islam had no foothold in Iraq, because Saddam would not allow it. Had we embarked on the conquest of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which is what we should have done, Saddam would have become a valuable ally. He already demonstrated his prowess at killing Iranians (without, BTW, substantial naval or air support), which skill could have proved most useful as a rational strategy evolved after American governors were installed in Riyadh and Islamabad.
So, no, not only were we not “right” to take out Saddam (kind of a childish expression), we were stupid and foolish to do so.
You nailed it.
The KSA and Pakistan sure got lucky with having Jeb's King-kissing idiot brother in office as US POTUS, followed by the Pakistan-vacationing crypto-Muslim/Islamophile Obama.