OPINION on the streets of Wanstead and South Woodford has swung firmly in the Government's favour since the war in Iraq.

But with victory secured, people still have strong misgivings over the motives for the war and what the future holds for the people of Iraq.

Kris Branford, of Beechwood Park, South Woodford, said: "At the time I was against the war but seeing as there weren't that many casualties, perhaps it hasn't done that much harm.

"Saddam Hussein had the capacity to make weapons of mass destruction even if they haven't found any.

"Hopefully, now they will have a better ruler who will allow them to have the choices we have."

Suzanne Arisoy, of Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, said: "I felt as if Britain and America in particular had a bit of a hidden agenda about why they started the war in the first place because there are other countries with these weapons. How did Iraq get these weapons in the first place? Obviously from the west. North Korea has already said they have weapons of mass destruction and the Americans are not starting a war with them.

"If Iraq can get a democratic government together with everyone having a vote that will be good, but the country is going to be fragmented for a long time. It's going to take a long time to develop different parties with different ways of doing things."

The Prime Minister seems to have earned respect for sticking to his guns but the way the war was conducted remains a concern for Veronica North, of Chigwell Road.

She said: "Tony Blair's done quite a good job. I think once he has made his mind up he goes through with it.

"There's been an awful lot of mistakes. I don't know if the Americans' training is different but there have been a lot of lives lost through errors.

"I think they will go after someone else soon because after one war finishes there's always another target around."

A relatively easy victory for the coalition has many wondering whether Iraq will be just the first in a list of countries targeted by the US.

Les Crabb, of Wansford Road, Woodford Green, has memories of when Britain was at war in Korea. He said: "They can't be trusted, we didn't trust them in the last war and they've got nuclear bombs now.

"I don't know whether the war in Iraq was a good thing or a bad thing but the way things were going something had to be done.

"As long as people have got arms and legs there will be war."

The west may have bitten off more it can chew and has no business being in Iraq according to Susan Milroy, of Lake House Road, Wanstead. She said: "I'm still against it. We are not the world police and it's not our place to interfere. I can't even watch it on TV it's so embarrassing.

"It's all going to get out of control and Iraq may end up with someone worse than Saddam."

The Iraqi dictator's decision last year to switch his foreign currency holdings to euros may have been a factor in America's attack, according to Peter Hurley, of Grove Hill, South Woodford.

He said: "Most of the countries who were against the war are part of the euro. Saddam didn't want to deal with dollars any more, he wanted to deal with Europe and the Americans didn't like that."

Mr Hurley's friend Mel Townsend, of Stradbrook Drive, Woodford Bridge, said: "It's more to do with finance than what is right and wrong."

The question of whether the toppling of Saddam's regime was worth the cost in both financial and human terms remains uppermost in people's minds.

Alan Brown, of Cleveland Road, South Woodford, said: "I felt that they needed to do something about Saddam but I am not sure that war was the best way of dealing with it."

Again, doubts about the motives of the coalition remain strong in the absence of any verified finding of weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Brown said: "It makes you wonder why they went in there in the first place, but it's a big country and now they have got some of the big people in the regime something might come out."

Turkish Cypriot Ramadan Sukram, of Worcester Crescent, Woodford Green, has personal experience of the effects of war in her birthplace but she has no doubt that Saddam had to be deposed.

She said: "The Iraqis don't like anyone foreign occupying their country but I think they know the US went in there for the people's good.

"They will be all right now because their big brother is in the country.

"Now we have North Korea, but if any country has nuclear bombs America won't go in. North Korea aren't afraid but I hope they get beaten by America.

"They are the biggest threat now."

May 1, 2003 10:00