how could anyone with a sense of decency still think removing Saddam was a mistake?
I've always justified the 2003 Iraq war like this:
Al Qaeda was ticked at the U.S. because we remained in Saudi Arabia long after the Gulf War was over, instead of leaving as we had said we were going to do. That was the basis for OBL's first fatwa against us. The reason we had to stay there was because Saddam was being a douche, and refusing to comply with all the material terms of the 1991 ceasefire. In other words, Saddam remaining in power and playing both sides against the middle with respect to WMD's (telling the West/U.N. that he didn't have them, while telling other Arab governments -- and Iran -- that he did) was forcing us to keep a permanent major troop presence in Saudi Arabia, which is something we did not want to do.
So, we had two options: Either keep significant forces in the ME permanently to contain Saddam, or eliminate the cancer once and for all so we could eventually leave. That's over and above the undisputed fact that he had breached the 1991 ceasefire. Truth is, we're closer to leaving the ME permanently now than we were in the late 90's or 2000. We'd
still have all those forces sitting in Saudi Arabia to keep an eye on Saddam. Had Obama not screwed up Iraq, it would likely be fine as well by now.