Under Saddam, the Arab nations were safe from Iranian infiltration, the Palestinian cause had a strong home and the most powerful arab state was kept united and orderly. He also crushed the most clear and present danger to the Arab nation: radicalist Al Qaeda movements. Usama Bin Laden did not have a foothold in the Middle East thanks to the secularist Saddam Hussein who espoused Baathism and combated fanaticism.
