The only long-term way to deal with al-Q'aida and other terrorist groups is to help the Arab peoples to secure greater freedom and democracy, so that their grievances (many of them substantial and real) can be voiced in a peaceful way. This war might – if Blair's view prevails – bring us closer to that.So lament the dead, as all sane people do; but unless you can show me that there was another way to get rid of Saddam that would not have resulted in as many or more deaths, then I will not feel guilty.johann johannhari More from Johann Hari. As heart-warming human interest stories go, "Saving Private Jessica" is hard to beat. Around the world, headlines made reference to Steven Spielberg's film of the US Army's mission to rescue a soldier whose three brothers had all been killed in combat. Private Lynch's story may not have quite the mythic power of Private Ryan's, but in these terrible times it's wondrous enough. The photograph of herself in fatigues, the stars and stripes behind her, could easily be mistaken for a Hollywood publicity shot, rather than an army mugshot.She seems a sweet and caring girl too, representative of simple, decent, American apple-pie values.

Ms Lynch enlisted in the army because she couldn't get the civilian job she needed at 16 in order to educate herself, and to get closer to fulfilling her own ambition of becoming a schoolteacher in her own small community, Palestine Even the name of the village in West Virginia is fitting. This girl, who before enlisting had never travelled more than 70 miles from her birthplace, had been brought up in a community that shared a name with a country whose own non-existence is centrally implicated in the troubles that almost claimed her life.No doubt her story is already being bought up by Hollywood. On this occasion, though, the dream factory won't have much embroidering to do. Ms Lynch's story might have been made up in Hollywood, so perfect is its reflection of American values and the American dream. In fact, if a Hollywood screenwriter had made it up, the critics would have roundly condemned the story as excruciatingly cheesy, hopelessly clich?and even offensively racist.For once again, the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction holds true. Until that rescue, no one expected this splendid happy ending. Rather, commentators suggested, Private Lynch's youthful vulnerability and all-American beauty would be a vile disadvantage in the arms of the enemy.Tony Parsons wrote about the "baying lynch mob" that gathered at the edge of the Tigris when it was rumoured that a US pilot had crashed there.

"And what if that pilot had been a woman? And blonde, young and pretty like Private Jessica Lynch, currently missing, her fate unknown. Joan Smith spoke of the fear that women "are more vulnerable, when captured, to sexual assault", while Carole Malone declared that she didn't "want to imagine what had happened to those woman", but braced herself to suggest "rape, gang-rape, slavery, terror".In Private Lynch's case, though, we now know these fears, though real, were thankfully unfounded. Instead, her youthful, blonde femininity marked Private Lynch apart in quite a different way.Cynics might assume that American forces went the extra mile to save Private Lynch precisely because she was such an iconic young figure. But a crucial aspect of Saving Private Jessica is that Iraqis were able to instantly recognise this girl, so typical of the American ideal, as being from the US, and to respond sympathetically to this recognition.