Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins of the Royal Irish captured not just the right note, but the only note, in his address to his men before battle began last Wednesday.
"We go to liberate, not to conquer. We are entering Iraq to free a people. We will not fly flags in their country. Show respect for them," he said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
This is a war that must now be won, but the manner in which it is won is as important as the victory itself.
And what happens afterwards will pose even more acute dilemmas.
Evident care has been taken to ensure that the targets singled out by precision-guided bombs are governmental and military.
The vital physical infrastructure that will support successful reconstruction is, as far as possible, not being attacked.
Infinitely more leaflets urging surrender and subsequent safe conduct have been dropped on Iraqi soldiers than bombs.
This is as it should and must be. The ardent hope is that a quick and relatively bloodless victory can be achieved with these intentions kept intact and that Iraq does not use the chemical and biological weapons which will tempt some, especially in Washington, to abandon the strategy. This war is understood by those inside and outside Iraq as a war against a tyrannical and duplicitous dictator.
Anglo-American force is directed as far as possible against him and his military infrastructure of repression.
It is a strategy that must be adhered to, notwithstanding any short-term reverses in the field, not least because it is already clear that American force of arms is overwhelming. The only issue is when and how victory will be achieved, rather than whether. Britain must insist that the strategy is sustained to what we must hope is the quick capitulation of Baghdad.
Then comes peace and Iraqi reconstruction, and the fundamental issues raised by Robin Cook in his interview with The Observer yesterday. There is no doubt that the divisions about Iraq that made agreement over a second UN resolution so difficult will become further entrenched regardless of military victory. The former Foreign Secretary worries about whether coherence can be sustained within the UN, the EU and NATO. He thinks that sooner or later Britain is going to have to say "No" to Washington if the US asserts a desire to recast the international system around American political imperatives.
The British continue to insist that multilateralism and the rule of international law must be respected, despite all the evident setbacks. For us, Hussein is a threat who must be removed, and whose menace should have brought the international community together. British Prime Minister Tony Blair strived to achieve as much legality and legitimacy as he could.
His failure to win support for a second UN resolution does not justify completely recasting the rules of the international system. It is not in Britain's interests to become a permanent part of a "coalition of the willing," intervening in whichever states some opinion in Washington dictates, if the rules of the game are only set by the US and the institutions of international law abandoned. It is not even in America's interests, as Cook argues, to proceed as if the support of the rest of the world does not matter. Allies are very important, not least to share some of the huge costs of reconstruction and peacekeeping.
There are some leading American conservatives for whom a quick victory in Iraq will only validate their belief that the UN has become a broken-backed irrelevance. They want to recast a framework of international treaties and alliances. For them, as was confirmed by a breakfast briefing of conservative hawks in Washington on Friday, the next targets are not only radical reform of the UN, but also regime change in Iran and Syria and political "containment" of Germany and France on the world stage.
Britain's choice will be acute. For the future, it must maintain constructive links with fellow Europeans whose multilateralist approach to international governance they fundamentally share. It would be a disaster if two camps emerge with an unbridgeable divide about how to approach establishing international order, one led by American conservatives and the other by European internationalists, with Britain caught as piggy in the middle.
Not only would it be fundamentally damaging to Britain's business and financial interests in Europe, but it would also signal the death knell of any constructive relationship with the EU. Britain would simply be left playing second fiddle to Washington.
To this end, Blair himself and the government in general should now drop their criticisms of France, however bruised they may feel. Britain needs to build bridges with Europe, not tear them down. When the time comes, Iraqi reconstruction must be achieved under the banner of the UN. It must not be run by the US with lucrative contracts going only to American companies. Above all, Britain needs to be clear that Saddam Hussein was an exceptionally intractable threat. The current conflict cannot just be the first of many serving as precursor to a new international order in which American might is always right.
Blair is planning a major reshuffle of his cabinet after the war, intending firmly to re-establish control of his party. It is not improper that such "domestic" considerations should concern him while he also fights this war. On the contrary, it is fundamental that he learns the right lessons from what has happened.
The Observer has supported, as a very last resort, taking military action in order to enforce the resolutions of the UN. And we have always argued for it to be framed legitimately. These concerns must help shape the peace and reconstruction that should now be a vital priority in Iraq.
Even Blair's most bitter political enemies, some, as so often, in his own party, acknowledge the near-heroism with which he has conducted himself in recent weeks.
He is still to be further tested. While fighting this war, he needs constantly also to look to the future, understanding the risks that might irretrievably endanger our national interest. Much more than the fate of Saddam is now at stake.
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