Baghdad falls

I had a rare moment of agreement with President Bush today. As the Washington Post reported this afternoon, Bush, like many of us, was thrilled to see Baghdad residents and U.S. Marines join together in toppling a statue of Saddam Hussein in the city’s Firdos Square.

“They got it down!” Bush said this morning as he saw the coverage on television an aide told the Post. Oddly enough, though I rarely see eye to eye with Bush, I found myself saying the same thing about the same event.

I also agree with assessment of Salon’s Joan Walsh. “I thrilled to see Baghdadis dance on it, and carry the big iron head away,” Walsh wrote today. “I’d be happy to see the same punishment meted out to the man himself.”

We love our symbolic statements, and though the war isn’t over and the difficult task of rebuilding isn’t close to starting, watching the bronze Hussein fall reminded us that his brutal reign was soon going to meet the same fate.

But reading over Vice President Cheney’s remarks from a speech in New Orleans today had a hint of something else. He never came right out and said it, but I got the feeling he was telling the world, “I told you so.”

Indeed, the Post headline on the story about White House jubilation on the war’s progress highlighted the administration’s feeling of “vindication.”

If the White House is prepared to gloat about the efficacy of Rumsfeld’s war plan — sending in a smaller fighting force than generals thought necessary — then the administration may yet have a point. It’s still too soon to tell, and as Ari Fleischer is taking pains to explain, the war isn’t over yet. But there was a growing consensus among many active and retired military officials that Rumsfeld was making a grave error in sending a trimmed down fighting force to Iraq. If things continue to go well, and our troops continue to have flowers thrown at them the way they were today, then the generals who had complained may ultimately appear mistaken.

But I sincerely hope the administration doesn’t think the success of our troops proves that war skeptics were mistaken about their opposition. To my knowledge, opponents of the war never argued that our military couldn’t overthrow Hussein’s government; the argument was over whether we should.

Indeed, there was universal agreement that Iraq’s military never fully recovered from the war in 1991. One would have to have been terribly misinformed to think our armed forced would not be able to eventually defeat Iraq’s. From the beginning, it was only a matter of time.

The basis for skepticism over the war has not been proven false by virtue of military success. For example, I was among many who worried that the war would further isolate America on the world stage. The administration will have a chance to begin healing those rifts by working cooperatively with allies in the rebuilding stage of post-war Iraq, but then again, the president may also exacerbate these troubled relationships by excluding institutions such as the U.N. from the process. We’ll see what the administration decides.

Another reason for concern before the war began was uncertainty over what the U.S. would do after “regime change.” Those fears are just as legitimate today. Baghdad’s residents may be embracing today as they watch Hussein statues fall, but there are genuine concerns over how the administration will allow self-government to flourish once the war ends. Looting is the most common feature of Iraqi cities today; achieving a stable peace will not, to borrow a phrase, be a “cakewalk.”

Will there be an interim government once fighting ends? Who will be responsible for placing those officials in power? What is the U.S. plan to maintain stability in a country composed of competing and adversarial ethnic groups? We’re winning the war, but our victory doesn’t answer these questions.

Lastly, many noted that young Arabs throughout the region, who already distrusted and resented America, would see the war as an unjustified invasion, followed by an occupation. In turn, we risked driving these angry people into hands of those who espouse (and even practice) terrorism. While there have fortunately not been any terrorist incidents executed during the war, no one can yet speak to whether the U.S. and its allies are increasing long-term threats.

Today, however, appears to be a good day, and for that we should all be grateful. As Salon’s Joan Walsh wrote, “It shouldn’t be hard to know what to applaud, and what to hope for…. We can cheer the Iraqis’ liberation — and gear up to fight to make sure it’s authentic, as the Pentagon draws up plans for postwar, post-Saddam Iraq.”