Yes, Hitler was a tyrant, and he did perpetrate genocide. He did engulf the world in war. But Saddam did too, though his genocide and wars have been on a lesser scale. On the other hand, Saddam has actually killed people with his own hands, some being members of his family. Reputedly he has a film library of his torturers at work, and he takes great pleasure in the torture of his enemies and of those Iraqis who would not pay protection money to his sons. I have read half a dozen biographies of Hitler and cannot recall any instance of his killing anyone with his own hand. In fact after reading the most recent and thorough biography of Hitler by Ian Kershaw, I came away with the distinct impression that Hitler was made quite squeamish by the sight of blood.
One other point on Hitler's behalf -- he had no corrupt sons. Saddam has two, and one of them, Uday, actually maintained a prison complex under the offices of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, which he ran. According to Con Coughlin in his splendid recent biography, "Saddam: King of Terror," the prison was capacious enough to hold 520 prisoners -- I say was, as Bush's ruffians bombed it without any regard to the future of the Iraqi Olympic team. At his prison, Uday has been witnessed torturing prisoners himself for such offenses as refusing to pay ransom. Coughlin writes that the prisoners were "mainly businessmen or the children of wealthy families who Uday thought were ripe for exploitation."
Actually, though Hitler's barbarism has been on a grander scale, the barbarism of Saddam and his family does give one pause to wonder. Why is our war against him considered so controversial by supposedly civilized Western nations such as France and Germany?
As I have written before, once the Coalition of the Willing has access to Iraqi records it is going to be apparent that France and Germany along with others were willing business partners with this grisly regime. Two other causes have led to these pompous nations' obstructionism. They are procrastinators, even as they were procrastinators in the 1920s and 1930s when dictators rose to menace the values of civilized democracies.
Secondly they are spiteful. They have been revealed as shirkers and exploiters, and you would not expect such cads to respond with magnanimity and gratitude. Both nations in their own ways gave us a Hitler in the past and allowed a Saddam to prosper and to torture. In my esteem, they stand about as high as they did in 1945, when the Anglo-Americans liberated their wretched ancestors.