What do you think about the war in Iraq? Are you for it or against it? It’s so easy to fall prey to propaganda (from both pro-war and anti-war factions) that it’s sometimes hard to keep the facts straight and think for yourself.

I want to be honest when writing about the war in Iraq: this writer does not oppose George Bush Jr’s invasion of Iraq, even if I don’t totally agree with all that was said prior to the invasion. I believe, however, that it’s important to make up your own mind about the war in Iraq and whether you support it or not.

The main reason I think favourably about the war in Iraq is because I knew an Iraqi woman who was grateful to have left her homeland and settle in a new country. This woman would frequently tell us about what life was like living under Saddam Hussein and how he had the people "under his thumb".

Let’s not lose sight of that when we think about the war in Iraq – Saddam Hussein was a dictator who didn’t hesitate to use torture, poison and other terror tactics to keep "his" people in line. Economic sanctions would not have worked – as my friend said, that would only hurt the common people and not affected Mr Gold-Plated-Toilet-Brush at all.

When the invasions came, my friend was happy about the war in Iraq, once she knew her family were safe. And we all saw the photos and clips in the news. The Iraqi people rejoiced when Saddam was ousted from power and became a fugitive – one particularly poignant image was of a middle-aged woman beating vehemently at a toppled statue’s face with her shoe.

But there were a few things about the war in Iraq and the invasion that I (and other people) wasn’t too happy about and thought were underhand and morally dubious. While Al-Qaeda possibly did have operative cells in Iraq (they probably do now, anyway), I do not believe that Iraq was a hotbed of Al-Qaeda activity, so this was not a valid excuse.

As for the notorious Weapons of Mass Destruction, I’m not so sure. I don’t know whether the intelligence agencies were mistaken or lying about how many there were in Iraq. But I do know that Saddam Hussein used poison gas on a Kurdish village, so the story was plausible, even if they didn’t find any once the war in Iraq had begun.

But what about the war in Iraq now? Why don’t the troops go home now that Saddam Hussein has been hanged for crimes against humanity and a new prime minister is in place? Well, things aren’t that easy.

In a good old-fashioned fantasy story, the book ends with the evil overlord being overthrown and a good leader being established, but reality doesn’t work like this. There’s always disgruntled people who had privileges under the old system and want them back. There are those who want to be in power and see the current leader as a puppet ruler. And there are those who are bitter about the war in Iraq and that the US invaded at all.

The ancient Roman legions (another republic with an eagle as a national symbol) knew about this. They knew that after a successful invasion, you had to commit yourself to making and keeping order. This is what the war in Iraq is about now – establishing Iraq so that it can run itself peacefully without civil warfare or other unrest (it may be tongue-in-cheek to refer to the troops as establishing the Pax Americana, but this is pretty close to what it is).

That’s my thoughts about the war in Iraq. What are yours?