The coup idea seems like a pretty logical way out. Mix together domestic hatred for the current government with an international community which feels pretty much the same way and a foreign-supported coup idea is the pretty natural offspring.
I’m not sure that another Ba’athist dictator would be such a bad thing. The world tolerates tons of dictators, like the rulers fo most of Iraq’s neighbors. Naturally as a pluralist I would prefer a regime which held free elections and welcomed Iraq’s many political parties in exile back. It’s not super likely but it’s worth a try, for the sake of the Iraqi people who have suffered hugely for the past decade or so. More likely would be a ruler who chose to rule Iraq more or less the way the Ba’ath Party rules Syria - obviously no great friend of the West but a stabilizing (or at least neutral) regional force rather than a destabilizing one.
In any case I think the coup is much to be preferred, if only because it will not hurt the image of the West (mainly the U.S. and the U.K. but also any other participating countries) as much as a pre-emptive war would.