There is a thoughtful discussion by Michael Walzer, in the latest issue of Dissent, on Just and Unjust Occupations:
[W]e need criteria for jus post bellum that are distinct from (though not wholly independent of) those that we use to judge the war and its conduct. We have to be able to argue about aftermaths as if this were a new argument - because, though it often isn't, it might be. The Iraq War is a case in point: the American debate about whether to fight doesn't seem particularly relevant to the debate about the occupation: how long to stay, how much to spend, when to begin the transfer of power - and, finally, who should answer these questions. The positions we took before the war don't determine the positions we take, or should take, on the occupation. Some people who opposed the war demand that we immediately "bring the troops home." But others argue, rightly, it seems to me, that having fought the war, we are now responsible for the well-being of the Iraqi people; we have to provide the resources - soldiers and dollars - necessary to guarantee their security and begin the political and economic reconstruction of their country. Still others argue that the aftermath of the war has to be managed by international agencies like the UN Security Council - with contributions from many countries that were not part of the war at all. And then the leaders of those countries ask, Why are we responsible for its costs?Read the rest for Walzer's particular judgements about the present occupation of Iraq. He concludes:
So the justice of the occupation is up to the citizens of the United States. These are the tests that the Bush administration has to meet, and that we should insist on: first, the administration must be prepared to spend the money necessary for reconstruction; second, it must be committed to debaathification and to the equal protection of Iraq's different ethnic and religious groups; third, it must be prepared to cede power to a legitimate and genuinely independent Iraqi government - which could even, if the bidding went that way, give its oil contracts to European rather than American companies.(Hat tip: SdeW.)