Cherie Booth told a recent conference that the destruction of the Iraqi marshlands during the 1980s and 1990s was symptomatic of the wider destruction of Iraq. It involved not just the destruction of land, but also of the people whose land it was. In the case of the Iraqi marshlands, most of its people were forcibly displaced not once but many times, leaving behind their possessions.The reconstruction of a nation cannot be achieved without involving the people of that nation in the reconstruction process.