Lol. There's no need to resort to insults.

I recall one time you were parroting the hardcore neo-cons style of things about Iraq, and I corrected an ignorant comment, and ever since you say I have a hard-on for Saddam. Jeez, I fix stupid things people say about Bush, America, Germany, and Hitler. Does that mean I have a massive hard on for Bush or Hitler?

First, it is worth noting Saddam was the leader of Iraq since 1968, while Iraq was already at war with Barzani/Talabani insurgents, supported by Iran, Israel, and the CIA, a wat that started in 1961 against Qassim. He politically negotiated the end of that and established the autonomous Kurdistan region in 1970. I'd say that was beneficial. In case of "But Saddam became president in 1979!", Ahmad Al Bakr was officially President but certainly wasn't in practice. Everyone domestically and internationally knew Saddam was thr leader and unsurprisingly always dealt with Saddam. There is no coincidence when people name Saddam when they refer to the 70s. It was the same for the brief period of Feb-Nov 1963. Bakr was president but Al Sadi actually was the leader.

The 70s Saddam also started his 2 decades of massive development campaigns that turned Iraq from an underdeveloped gutter state to a country known for its modernization, high level of development, education and other things. Of course this made other Arab countries' governments envious or afraid, especially since Iraq was of no repute before Saddam, but that's an entirely different matter.

In 1973, he sent an initial 30,000 men to rescue Syria in the Yom Kippur war. Hafez Al Assad accepted the cease-fire deal and ceded the Golan for some money (this guy is infamously easy to bribe), but Iraq's entrance certainly surprised the Israelis and they were not prepared. It not only saved Syria, but pushed the Israelis towards a cease fire. The Syrians and Iraqis could have pushed further to recover the Golan but Hafez had accepted the cease-fire deal and the Iraqis withdrew. A big favor for an ally and preventing what could have been a much stronger negotiating and strategic position for Israel was a big win.

In 1974, after given autonomous rights, Mustafa Barzani launched another insurgency, supported by Iran who also invaded Iraq as OP surprisingly mentioned. Through military force and diplomacy, Iraq battled the Peshmerga/Iranians and in the Algiers Accord it was agreed Iran would no longer support insurgents and terrorists in Iraq. Iranian forces withdrew and the Peshmerga were defeated. Of course, the Shah only lasted 4 more years, but its uncertain he would have kept his end of the bargain anyways. Its worth noting Mustafa Barzani and others went into exile following their defeat in this conflict. Barzani died in 1979, succeeded by his son Masoud. Now was this beneficial for Iraq? Absolutely. It ensured no more Iranian support for insurgents in Iraq, possibly along with the CIA and Israel.

Now in all of this, Iraq had just reached over 10 million people in the early-mid 70s. Due to the extremely high population growth rates, Iraq had a very young population (it still does today). This means the percentage of working people was a lot smaller than say in Japan today. Despite this, many advances were made in economy, industry, education, services, etc. and part so Iraq started looking pretty advanced and modernized. It was an immense transformation, despite the conflicts of the 60s and 70s. If you wanted to go study or work in the best the Mideast had to offer and you didn't want to go to Israel, then you went to Iraq, and unsurprisingly that's what 100,000s of Arabs did, including over a million from Egypt alone. These campaigns continued through the 80s as well. Now, Iraq was nothing like this before the 70s. It was a weak, poor, uneducated state living in the shadow of Syria and Egypt. You remember Nasser right? How he proclaimed Egypt the leader of the Arab world? Well, Nasser died, Saddam transformed Iraq, and that flipped around. Egyptians were flocking to Iraq. This may blow your mind, but when people talk about how Iraq uses to be this great and developed place, ironically Saddam was responsible for that.