Yes, he killed a lot of dissenters in the northern part of Iraq, and that shouldn't be condoned. But remember, that was mainly because they sided with Iran in the Iran-Iraq War. Let's pretend the US and Canada got into a war, and much of the state of Minnesota sided with Canada. Do you honestly think Bush WOULDN'T order the slaughter of a bunch of Minnesotans?
And remember, the only reasons the US gov't fought Saddam in 1991 was oil and ties to Saudi Arabia. The reason Saddam invaded was due to slant drilling -- Kuwait basically stealing oil from Iraq by drilling underground at an angle near the border. Bush Sr. originally didn't care that Saddam's army invaded Kuwait, but the Saudis threw a shit fit, and that's the point that Bush stepped up.
Dubya basically invaded because he hated the fact that Poppy didn't get Saddam removed (oh and politics as well, pretending that terrorism was a reason).
During the 80s, the US government was friendly with Saddam. At this point, I present Exhibit A.
I'm not arguing that Saddam is innocent of any crime or a great guy or anything like that. That said, his despotism is overrated, and his removal was basically for political reasons.
To cut to the chase, the US government ruined Iraq so that the Bush family and other Republicans could have more power. That's all it amounts to.
And killing Saddam serves nothing more than exhibitionism -- in other words, politics. And it's going to backfire as well -- does anyone really think that Saddam loyalists are going to idly stand by and let him hang without retribution?
The US manufactured Saddam as an enemy. He was never a threat to the US. Bush was wrong about everything he said about Saddam, both going into and during the conflict. And the world is unfortunately going to pay for Saddam's passing because Bush couldn't wait for God's dose of vengeance.