Last time, it was the (soon to be Former) Soviet Union, and the statues were Lenin and Stalin. This time, it's Saddam Hussein who's become the new "Headless Horseman," the "Man with the Mustache with Feet Broken Off."

These two events, these two statue bashings, have important things in common. Both were symbolic but very real Declarations of Independence, by people gripped under dictators and thought-police for dreary decades. And both were made possible only with the demonstration to others of iron diplomatic will and hardened military skill by the United States of America and our allies.

For the USSR, we did our part through a long and bloody series of engagements on the peripheries of the communist Evil Empire. Our grand strategy was one of geographical and maritime surrounding, and economic wearing-down. We turned thermonuclear Mutual Assured Destruction on its head, by showing the Kremlin in various ways (some still highly classified) that its strategic command and control network's effectiveness was crumbling fast. Our secret weapon in the Cold War -- our Special Forces of that era, if you will -- were submariners who trailed Crazy Ivan till Ivan's bosses grew frightened of their own shadows, and scared of their restive civilian populations too.

But for the latter-day Hitler wannabee who so recently ruled Iraq through repression and terror, we did it with a blitzkrieg assault straight at and into his seats of power, Baghdad and Tikrit. In the traditions of Generals Patton and Montgomery at their best, we ignored our flanks in the deserts and roared past hostile-held smaller objectives... and it worked. And this time, our Special Forces were people on the ground, even as robotic armed reconnaissance drones became a new sign of American and British air supremacy.

Which just goes to show that even when the outcome is the same -- victory -- the means each time are different. Technology and tactics never stand still, though human nature changes much more slowly, if really at all. And the horrible aspects of war remain: War isn't hell. It's worse than hell.

Yes, there were tragedies. Our troops have been wounded or killed, from enemy fire or friendly fire or operational accidents. And yes, innocent Iraqi civilians have also been maimed or killed, despite our best efforts to spare them as much as we possibly could. Operation Iraqi Freedom isn't over by a long-shot, and there will surely be more tragedies to come. Nation building is never easy -- America's Founding Fathers can definitely testify to that!

Now, our self-congratulation must be tempered by accurate realism. The transition from war to peace can sometimes be hell-on-wheels too, and includes the good, the bad, and the extremely ugly.

The good: Our warfighting troops have entered "Phase IV" with astonishing speed. Stability Operations, and Civil Affairs, are quickly coming to the forefront of the tasks to be completed. Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner has already arrived in-country, to help administer urgent humanitarian aid and also try to put in place -- without chaos or acrimony -- genuine self-determination for the people of Iraq. Though so much remains to be done, one sign of the progress made is a "relief column" of food supplies specifically for the starving animals in the City of Baghdad's zoo. The story told by Iraqi doctors and nurses, of how they treated PFC Lynch's wounds, then risked their lives to conceal her from Saddam's minions during the hunt for her, is heartwarming. And Tom Ridge has lowered our countrywide homeland security status from Orange Alert to a mellower Yellow.

The bad: Looting in Baghdad during the sudden power vacuum there, when Saddam's regime gave way so swiftly that even our soldiers and marines had trouble restoring order at first. Robbing of priceless artifacts from one of the Middle East's most important museums, apparently by professional thieves who had the whole thing planned. And stripping bare inside hospitals of everything from beds to drugs to lightbulbs, even as the medical staff worked hard to treat the overflow of wounded and the sick. One has to wonder, though, how much of this looting was actually carried out by Saddam's once-vaunted Special Republican Guard, a pseudo-brotherhood of thugs who abandoned their posts and their uniforms and simply melted away. Was some of this senseless looting, in fact, also preplanned, by Baath Party extremists remaining loyal to Saddam -- to mar, to deface, an otherwise tidy end to the rather anticlimactic Battle of Baghdad? Even if you aren't fond of conspiracy theories, this one does make you think!

The ugly: Images of human suffering, of pain and grief, that tear at the soul. Homicide bomber attackers, including at least one pregnant woman who blew up herself and her unborn child on purpose. Mass graves of the victims of Saddam's years of vicious repression, only now coming to light. Credible indications that Saddam did indeed possess weapons of mass destruction, and/or the facilities to make them, and these were burned or buried at the last minute as the war began.

But the good overwhelms all the bad and the ugly. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims are right now making a pilgrimage to their holy city, Karbala -- a pilgrimage brutally banned by Saddam for twenty-five years. As one Shiite explained to a Western news reporter, this is the first time in his adult life that he can ritually beat his chest in mourning for the treacherous death of his sect's founder many centuries ago, without fear of being shot by the Saddamite government. Was this new-found religious freedom worth the bloodshed and discomfort of the past few weeks? Again, perhaps, doubters in America should ask what our Founding Fathers would say. Our own War of Independence, started in 1776, was certainly no lightning victory -- it dragged on for years, and civilians suffered atrociously, and many Minutemen and Continental Army soldiers died. And we were only able to win in the end with outside military help -- ironically, from France.

Let us in conclusion reflect back on America's success in many other fights for freedom, from our first triumph at nation building that established the US of A -- and then across two centuries in a world that enjoyed little peace -- to our triumph in the Cold War. Let that reflection do several important and positive things: Add some well-deserved zest to the savoring of what we achieved so far in Iraq. Add renewed energy to our efforts to help that country rebuild and run itself well. Add a feeling of closure that the global War on Terror continues (at least so far) to go our way -- notice how even Syria and North Korea, suddenly, seem willing to talk! (And don't feel bad that some Shiites are already shouting, "Yankee go home." Liberators are rarely welcomed permanently once their liberation campaign wraps up. Did the U.S. subordinate itself in any way to France when the Red Coats went home?)

But also add a sense of humility, because whatever we accomplished could not have been done without the painful sacrifice of so many who went before us, ever since 1776. Above all, let us avoid complacency. The empty chasm where the bold Twin Towers once soared should remind us all that, indeed, eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Yet while statues of tyrants topple, the Statue of Liberty stands gleaming, proud and strong.

And maybe that's the whole point. The Statue of Liberty will never be demolished by the people of America either eagerly or by choice because of everything good she stands for.

JoeBuff.Com / Joe Buff Inc. Joe Buff, President Dutchess County, New York E-Mail readermail@JoeBuff.Com