New Delhi: Top Republican US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said that the world would be a better place if dictators such as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in power.
When asked if the world would be better off with Hussein and Gaddafi still at the helm in Iraq and Libya, Trump said, "100 per cent."
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was toppled in the 2003 US and was executed in 2006. Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for four decades, was ousted and killed in October 2011.
"People are getting their heads chopped off. They're being drowned. Right now it's far worse than ever under Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi," the billionaire real estate tycoon said.
He further said that the Middle East 'blew up' around US President Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton -- his biggest Democratic rival in the race for the White House.
"I mean, look what happened. Libya is a catastrophe. Libya is a disaster. Iraq is a disaster. Syria is a disaster. The whole Middle East. It all blew up around Hillary Clinton and around Obama. It blew up," he said.
Trump, while describing Iraq the 'Harvard of terrorism', said the country has turned into a 'training ground for terrorists'.
"If you look at Iraq from years ago, I'm not saying he (Saddam) was a nice guy. He was a horrible guy but it's better than it is now," he said.
He also said the United States should have taken Iraq's oil, saying it was now being bought by China, and also going to Iran and the Islamic State group.
