(also from Signposts)

It is finished. The troops have "marched into Bagdhad, toppled Saddam (albeit in statue form), and:

Posters of Saddam were shredded and many people cheered "Bush! Bush!" and "America! America!" as others tore up 250 Iraqi Dinar notes that bear the face of Saddam.

I know that some people see this as a victory over anti-war protestors - see josh's blog or this article for examples. Some have indicated that this shows that the war was justified after all, and I know I will probably get flamed for this, but I have a couple of thoughts. First, if you were a citizen of a country where for 24 years, any sign of disloyalty to the regime in power was punishable by torture and death, do you think you might take the same care (at least initially) to avoid showing any potential disloyalty to the new leaders of your country? I think it is telling to see that many of the same actions we saw previously as signs of allegiance to Saddam (kissing posters etc) are now echoed in the images we are seeing of Iraqi people and their "allegiance" to the US and George Bush.

I am not saying that the citizens are sad to see Saddam go, or that they should be. But evaluating the success or failure of this incursion is more complex than simply saying that the means are justified by the ends, and any critique of those means should therefore be abandoned. Similarly, to take this snapshot of joy and celebration as the last word on the Iraqi people's thoughts about the war is overly simplistic.

Secondly, winning an armed dispute is relatively simple. Simple in the sense that the goals, the outcomes and processes are clear. Concrete in the sense that countries are willing to back that war with money and resources.

Reconstruction is much more complex, and much less popular, and likely to be subject to much less scrutiny from the international community. The war is done, we can tie that up with a bow and set it aside and turn our attention to whether Tiger Woods will manage a three-peat this weekend.

I have lately been reading We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch about the genocide in Rwanda. This, together with Crimes Against Humanity by Geoffrey Robertson amounts to a chilling indictment on the will and capacity of the international community to provide real solutions to the problems of human rights abuses and to assist in the reconstruction of societies after the conflict has ceased.

In short, winning the war does not mean that people leave their conflicts behind. They bring with them their baggage about government and politics, their baggage about local conflicts, their baggage about their view of social structures. Sadly, too many people will see that the war has been won, but in truth, the hardest, least popular and longest task is ahead.