Some of you may have noticed that we had a wee bit of a war there a few months back.

The country we went to war with was Iraq, and according to CNN, the people there spent their time before the war smoking hookahs, glowering at television cameras and generally being grimy, when they weren't chanting paeans to their brutal dictator and rhythmically firing Kalashnikovs into the air. This was seen as a colorful and folkloric custom, not as reason for caution.

We decided to remove the brutal dictator, name of Hussein, for the stated reason that he had weapons of mass destruction and destroying mass is a direct violation of the first law of thermodynamics. Some people, known as hippie peacenik perverts, felt that this was either an insufficient reason for going to war or not the real reason at all. However, our government, a bunch of Bible-toting bloodthirsty nabobs otherwise known as "neoconservatives," disagreed. In the end, the hippies lost, the neocons won, and war it was. The war was easily won as the Iraqi infidel fell before us like Frenchmen before Prussians, but the story does not end just because the president lands on an aircraft carrier.

There remains much hand-wringing concerning whether the war was just or wise. I leave these questions to dustily-mustachioed historians so that we may focus on our current problems in Iraq and how best to solve them. Some may not like the fact that we went to war in Iraq, but we did, and energies expended in upbraiding the administration for imperious hastiness would be better spent extolling them to make our military victory meaningful and lasting in peace. Mr. Hussein was a disagreeable chap, quite unfit for polite company, and only the coldest of souls could not have derived some satisfaction from watching his erstwhile subjects topple his statues and pummel them heartily. If I had access to my own Hussein statue, I would knock it over with great enthusiasm. But it is not enough to free the Iraqis from Hussein. We must leave them a legacy of freedom and security if we ever want the world to listen to our platitudes with a straight face again.

It is a good start to hunt down members of the former regime and imprison them. They are bad folks and deserve punishment. But the Iraqi people also deserve to see justice meted out openly and fairly. Under Hussein, they endured random unannounced searches and incommunicado detentions without trial. Under our stewardship, they enjoy the same. If we ever want the actual liberation of Iraq to begin, this must change.

I'm not sure how many troops we have left in Iraq to clean up, restore order, capture members of the former regime and foster a liberal democracy. I think there are at least four dozens. Now, that may not sound like many, but Rumsfeld wanted to leave just a squad of Marines, some carrier pigeons and three crates of miniature American flags for the locals to wave on TV. In any case, there are not enough troops in Iraq. It is fashionable to opine that U.N. peacekeepers should fill the gap, which would be fantastic, but will other nations eagerly consent to cleaning up our mess? With or without help from abroad, we must spend the requisite money and employ the troops necessary to make Iraq peaceful and stable. The alternative would be more costly in the long term.

Nathan Valentine is a graduate student in medicine. His columns appear Mondays. He can be reached at opinions@dailyillini.com.