Realistically speaking we should have just taken Saddam down in '91 problem was Bush 41 listened to the Saudis who wanted him to stay in power as a counter balance to Iran.
I don't think the Saudis were the only ones thinking that knocking over Iraq would give the Iranians a bit too much elbow-room.
Saddam Hussein was a counter against the Iranians and he certainly wasn't letting al qaeda have free run of Iraq the way we ended up doing by dismantling the Iraqi security apparatus before we had anything ready to replace it.