"when Blair told us we were within 20 mins of being obliterated by Iraq's WMDs, and consequently Saddam had to go. both decisions got rid of nasty leaders - a bit like Assad, but were those decisions in the best interest of those indigenous populations? i suspect not."

The only thing is Big Al, Blair never said anything of the sort, a UK tabloid rag called "The Sun" said it and it was 45 minutes not 20. As to the demise of Saddam, I think that if asked the indigenous population, especially the majority Shia population of Iraq would definitely tell you that they were better off now than under Saddam's rule (During which for almost 24 years Saddam's regime on average murdered somewhere between 154 and 252 Iraqis every single day). The other thing is that ISIS is made up of former Iraqi Ba'athist supporters of Saddam Hussein who fled over the border into Syria during the Sunni Awakening in 200/2007.