The Iraq War has (for the most part) ended. Big surprise there. A whopping victory. Biiiig surprise.

So here comes the hard part. Settling the dust. Of course, those doves are starting to fess up that there were indeed issues turned out to be non-issues.

I really wish I had more actively blogged during the Iraq war instead of taking a backseat for the sake of being non-argumentative. In any case, I don't think there was ever a legitimate scare of Iraq creating a broader war nor was there a legitimate scare that WMDs would be used over a battlefield.

The big surprise is honestly how fast Baghdad fell. I didn't expect the protracted street right of Mogadishu; I expected a Stalingrad-esque starvation of the Republican Guard within the city while JDAMs continued to pound away at logistical structures. In the worst case scenario, I thought we would encircle Baghdad and take the rest of the country.

In any case, we cannot find Saddam or the WMDs. That is also a big surprise. Although I didn't expect a big cache of chemical weapons to be found, I did expect a few isolated incidents to spring up. This shows that (as much I hate to admit it), the UN inspectors were doing their job with some efficiency. Although Blix has increasingly been shown to be completely biased, there was some legitimacy to his claims that he couldn't find any WMDs.

The State Dept and the White House are claiming the WMDs are hard to find because:
1.) They have been destroyed
2.) They are indeed on mobile trains are continued to be ferried around
3.) Secret underground labs

Now, I have major issues with the last two. With the downfall of Saddam, there is no central structure to provide support... Although I have no doubt that there ARE WMDs still in Iraq, I begin to wonder if they WERE all destroyed prior to the war or if they were indeed moved to Syria (I hate to use conspiracy theory and I'm not sold on this idea yet).

In any case, the new candidates for Iraqi leadership ... are pretty expected. They are all moderates with a slight hatred of the US. But trust me, this is much better for OUR policy than what was before. And in a few years when the Iraqis have forgotten our removal of Saddam and start bitching about whatever the Iraqi leadership tells them to bitch about, we can all rejoice that at least they're not being murdered innocently.

There is still a lot of reconstruction work to do - and I'm really interested to see the political endgame of Iraq.

P.S. I still cannot understand those people who are saying, "War was not the answer. I agree Saddam was a bad man, but we should of found a peaceful resolution."

Sorry, but this irks me beyond belief. How can you say that after the war went relatively bloodless and Saddam WAS removed?!

And any arguments now about the war's legal legitimacy is bullcrap. Both sides have so much ammunition I don't think any of us want to wade into that battlefield.