Based on what? In retrospect, it was just about the worst possible thing to do in a country like that. Our governments act as if "democracy" is the end all be all, while mocking it every day through their own diabolical control methodology, and how it's applied on a local, national and global level.
Hussein was a psychotic asshole, but he served an important function which has become all too clear now. If they wanted regime change without a massive military expenditure (and all the juicy profits to be made from it), they could have done it through the tried and tested CIA way.
But there was bloodlust, and a cabal of people who were drunk on power, mentally unsound, and wanted to destroy a country.