Posted on: Thursday, April 10, 2003

EDITORIAL
White House watches as Baghdad topples

"They got it down!" President Bush exclaimed as he watched television coverage of a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled, according to an aide.

The White House surely deserved its moments of satisfaction yesterday as the Saddam regime clearly lost control of Baghdad and U.S. troops were greeted with a dizzying welcome by Iraqis who, after a few tense and sullen days, finally embraced liberation.

But Bush quickly, and quite properly, stopped from embarking on a heady spree of triumphalism. Through his press secretary, Bush cautioned: "We are still in the midst of a shooting war. Men and women still are in harm's way."

Indeed, it always seems that war's greatest tragedies are the casualties that occur after the outcome is clear, but before the shooting falls silent.

While it's too soon to assess the overall success of this ongoing campaign, it's likely that in many ways it will prove unmatched in history for its breathtakingly swift victory. Vice President Cheney is right that coalition forces have "achieved a far more difficult objective" with less than half the ground forces and two-thirds of the air power used in the 1991 Gulf war.

Our fighting men and women have done themselves — and their nation — proud.

Even when the shooting stops, Americans have difficult days ahead as they try their hand at nation-building in an ancient civilization that historically united only under iron-fisted rule.

A humanitarian relief effort — of a broadly international nature, including the United Nations — is badly needed but already behind schedule. The time to rest on our laurels is already past.