>I'm still conflicted about our involvement over there - but referring to Iraq as a "secular state"?......good grief!!!

It is true. Saddam ruled the country as a non religious dicator. It was not a theocracy.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam
"A leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party, which espoused secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and socialism"