and in the end, winning the war could well prove the easy part.

Here's a good article about some of the challenges that await us (and keep in mind, the fighting is by no means over).

Now U.S. military civil affairs teams start the tough job of picking up after Saddam's reign of terror. Establishing security among elated, frightened people requires delicacy as well as strength. The transition from HE (high explosive) to HA (humanitarian assistance) is already in progress, especially in Basra. British troops are already wrestling with water distribution issues.



The dicey changeover, the phase the Pentagon calls "war termination," is extremely complex and its strategic political significance extraordinary. With a peaceful and more just 21st century the grand strategic goal, U.S. and allied forces liberating Iraq must -- more or less simultaneously -- end combat operations, cork public passions, disarm Iraqi battalions, bury the dead, explain the inexplicable to orphans, generate electricity, pump potable water, bring law from embittering lawlessness, empty jails of political prisoners, pack jails with criminals, turn armed partisans into peaceful citizens, re-arm local cops who were once enemy infantry, shoot terrorists, scotch terrifying rumors, thwart chiselers, carpetbaggers and blackmarketeers, fix sewers, feed refugees, patch potholes, get trash trucks rolling and accomplish this under the lidless gaze of Peter Jennings and al-Jazeera.

Oil for Food must be transformed into oil for food, development and investment, with the long-savaged Iraqi people getting their rightful share. Saddam's Swiss bankers and French business partners should have to cough up the stolen billions he has stashed in their coffers. That's quite a job, but so was smashing a heavily armed and entrenched tyranny in 22 days.