Christopher Hitchens decides to emerge from his war time bunker with words we should remember:

In the coming days, we shall see even more scenes of prisons bursting open and mass graves and torture centres being exposed to the light. We shall hear stories that will make us cry, as well as celebrate.

We shall also need to give the inspectors more time! Then the long and tedious task of rebuilding Iraq can begin, and will be subjected to cynical criticism at every turn – by the people whose attitude would have made the liberation impossible in the first place.

But nothing can erase the memory of Baghdad’s dawn.

No matter what happens in the future, Wednesday will stand as one of those wonderful moments in human history for the simple reason that it was a spontaneous explosion of hope for a people who never had it before.