The deaths of Trujillo and Hussein

In the aftermath of Trujillo's death in May 1961, twenty eight people were killed (Bernard Diederich, "Trujillo," p. 265). The Dominican Republic went on to establish a new government and eventually develop a working democracy that survives to this day. Trujillo's death was entirely done by a few Dominicans who ambushed him, and the democracy that followed can be credited largely to Dominicans. The US government was not involved in the plot to kill Trujillo, even though the US Embassy knew about it and provided a few guns to the plotters. However, after the Bay of Pigs fiasco earlier in 1961, the US did not want to be involved any further.
Saddam Hussein, also a three-decade dictator died recently in Iraq, three years after the US invaded the country in a regime-change mission. Even before he died, the number of people killed in Iraq have been in multiples of thousands. Thousands more are yet to die and there is no certainty as to how the process will end. If a working democracy is established, a great deal of credit should be duly given to the US. If it does not, the US will be due a large part of the blame for interfering in the process.
The Dominican case is an example of the lasting outcome that results when countries take care of their dictators on their own, for their own reasons and with their resources and determination. Iraq deserves a democracy but the foreign assistance certainly has increased the blood cost of attaining it. The Iraqi people also lost a chance to enjoy democracy as a home-grown accomplishment, which they will pay for with more bloodshed and an unstable peace.
Trujillo's death did accomplish tangible results. Hussein's death does not appear to be the event that will consolidate Iraq's democracy. The irrelevance of Hussein's death is a tangible lesson that the US should not topple foreign dictators but let their oppressed subjects do it on their own.