Executions and torture continued throughout the exsistence of the regime. Using the same criteria, if we had invaded the Soviet Union and deposed Stalin, let's say, in 1948, yes we would have uncovered mass graves of ten years vintage. However, albiet on a smaller scale, we would have uncovered a number of gulags, as we did with the incredible array of prisons Saddam created in Iraq.
But look: the death toll from the ENFORCED starvation in North Korea is greater than Saddam could even spit at. When comes that invasion?
I think China, South Korea, the Russia and Japan have a say in that matter. Also, it is provable beyond doubt the DPRK have nuclear weapons. As well, as much of a vicious murderer and sociopath Saddam is, he does have his personal boundaries and limits. Baby Kim is a egomanical madman and unpredictable.
It was an eventuality that due to geopolitical necessity Saddam had to go. The facsist regime he put in place was already long moving toward the Wahabbi loons, and despite its relative toothlessness militarily (compared to 1990-91) it became increasingly evident the regime provided a haven to virtually every terrorist nasty the ME had to offer. At least with Hizbulluh the Iranians and Syrians "localized" the former's activity to Lebanon and Israel. Saddam was moving toward AQ, thus unacceptable. The resources available to AQ and other terrorists through the regime were enormous compared to anything the Afghans ever had to offer.
I don't trust Bush with the Iraqi people's freedom and security.
President Bush never had any intention to hold Iraq as a puppet state. That was a fantasy held by a few intellectuals such as Kristol and Kagan. Even Richard Perle's notorious position paper never considered such a inane idea. An independent, viable government was created in Iraq faster than in West Germany, for example. Increasingly, the Iraqis are providing for their own security. As for "freedom", it perhaps is not what you or I envision in our respective ideologies, but it is a remarkable improvement over the Stalinist murder regime it replaced.
His man in Iraq, Chalabi, was revealed to be a spy for their sworn enemy Iran, remember.
There was a great deal of conflict between the Pentagon, State and the White House regarding Chalabi's veracity, role and position in a post-Saddam Iraq. He was supported by one faction, and that support pre-dates the Bush Administration. Anyhow, that "man" has been shunted aside. Whatever it's worth, the current leaders in Iraq are already proving themselves as their own "men". Iraq is far from a British-style protectorate, or Vichy, or a Latin American republic from the days of yore. Certainly more independent than the only other regional counterpart to this transistional period--Lebanon.
Let us not forget that North Korea is a crowing acheivement of Clinton foreign policy and the United Nations' committment to non-proliferation. Why, Jimmy Carter engineered the Nuclear Agreed Framework and the UN trotted out Hanz Blix, then head of the IAEA, to enfore it. Yessiree, DPRNK is the UN/Clinton/Carter baby, and we're still waiting for them to clean it up.