Paris ? With Saddam Hussein vanquished, the French appear to have undergone an attitude adjustment about the U.S.-led war.

No one is cheering the U.S. government, but there’s support for the fall of Saddam and the swift manner in which it was accomplished.

“The Americans have won the war — in only three weeks,” Le Figaro newspaper wrote in an editorial. “It is a victory for George Bush.”

Absent now is the criticism that prevailed during France’s bitter prewar arguments with the United States and Britain. French leaders said Thursday they “rejoiced” in the collapse of Saddam’s regime, and political analysts said the French people now wondered whether their country was right to oppose the war so staunchly.

“The French are discovering the truth — that the coalition was efficient,” said Francois Gere, director of the Paris-based Diplomatic and Defense Institute.

Before the fighting began last month, newspapers and politicians portrayed the United States and Britain as “invaders” opposed by the Iraqi people, Gere said.

“Instead we see pictures of Iraqi people celebrating — not only the arrival of British and U.S. forces, but celebrating the end of a regime,” Gere said.

U.S. Marines are working to build relations with Baghdad civilians in order to lower tensions. Here, Marines sign their autographs for some Iraqi children who approached them while on patrol Friday in Baghdad. The success of the U.S.-led war in Iraq is leading some French to change their opinion of the war.

His words were echoed by Philippe Moreau Defarges of the French Institute of International Relations.

“We’re seeing a subtle shift,” Defarges said. “We are starting to hear a more dissonant voice in France. The U.S. victory has made the debate more complex.”

French newspaper editorials still retained a healthy dose of skepticism, questioning the whereabouts of Saddam’s alleged weapons of mass destruction and focusing on the challenge of postwar reconstruction.

But in the war’s first two weeks, French media went heavy with coverage of Iraqi civilian casualties and scenes of suffering. On Thursday, media criticism was aimed squarely at the fallen Saddam.