Last week, an interviewer on the television show 60 Minutes asked Richard Clarke, former top adviser to the US administration on counter-terrorism: 'Don't you think that Iraq, the Middle East and the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein out of power?'

Yesterday, the world was better off without Saddam Hussein. Today, it could be Colonel Muammar Gaddafi; tomorrow it might be the president of Pakistan or the king of Saudi Arabia. Thereafter the world would be better off without the man down the street who is a drug peddler, or the neighbour who is a hooker.

Who is to decide what makes the world better off?