The Road to Surfdom had the best take on Lileks's piece:

You know, everyday I read a piece like James Lileks'. They all have an inescapable conclusion: We're glad we put Saddam in power in the first place. No, they don't say that and insist that Saddam was a wretched tyrant, and the world is better off without him in power, BUT, if we hadn't installed, financed, armed and encouraged him and turned a blind eye to his atrocities at the time we would never have had to come and liberate the place thirty years later. No, but. Yes, but. Perhaps, however.