I think we all share the joy of seeing a soldier reunited with his or her family on their safe return from war. Most of us can only imagine the fear of a loved one being killed or injured during their time away serving their country. It's something I've got to thinking about more of late as my brother-in-law is a soldier and is preparing for an overseas deployment later this year.

Seeing the pictures recently of soldiers being welcomed home at Brisbane airport was really emotional for me. They'd spent at least six months in the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar – part of the reconstruction force, helping train local security forces. A key election promise of Kevin Rudd's in the lead-up to his November 2007 election win was to begin withdrawing our troops from Iraq, and that has begun. Our commitment though to the troubled region has been minimal, when compared to the US and UK, but far from insignificant.

It is an interesting time for Iraq. US Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is against the war and has committed to withdrawing troops from the country if he wins the November election. Even if Republican candidate John McCain becomes president, it's likely efforts in Iraq will be scaled back. Obama often refers to the heartbreaking list of US casualties, more than 4000 deaths since the war began in 2002. Meaning can often be lost in statistics, so it's worth remembering every one of those soldiers has a family, a group of loved ones left shattered, and for what? What has the war achieved? In the end there were no weapons of mass destruction found, however the tyrant Saddam Hussein was removed . . . perhaps that's enough.

It's hard to know how history will judge the Iraq war. Certainly, the majority of public opinion in Australia, the US and the UK now regards it as a very costly mistake. It will be many years before we are able to answer clearly what, if anything, the war in Iraq has achieved.

From our perspective, I think it is important to reflect on what the Australian troops contributed and achieved. They played a pivotal role in rebuilding the war-ravaged country. Every day they put their lives at risk, building schools and hospitals for strangers. Regardless of whether you agree with the war or not there is no doubt that our soldiers have made a difference and we should be extremely proud of them. Allison Langdon