Holman Jenkins (paid site--you really are going to have to subscribe) makes a great point in his introduction. Saddam, who craved power and prestige could have ruled a true world power had he run a free Iraq:
"Baathist nationalization in the 1970s, Saddam's destructive wars and the sanctions he brought down on his country's head have kept Iraq from acquiring technology to exploit these [extensive oil resources].
"The irony is that Saddam would have had an economic power, perfectly legitimate in the eyes of the world, far greater than any he gets from terror weapons."