This fed into the "de-Baathification" of Iraq, where simply firing people in a purge of the regime resulted in a situation of both ineffective governance and a huge pool of excluded people who could form a resistance movement against the occupying coalition. Plenty of people and weapons from that have ended up in the Syrian civil war.

Conversely the South African "truth and reconciliation commission" seems to have played a part in the healing of that country - but at the cost of leaving crimes unpunished. Northern Ireland has opted for an intermediate approach of trying to draw a line under everything as quietly as possible - no truth, no justice, but no more killing.

Arguably many of the US's current problems stem from inadequately addressing the pro-slavery faction. At least now the question of "what is the significance of all these statues from the losing side of the civil war?" is back in the public consciousness.