In the wake of war

Paul McGeough's final report from Baghdad.

Out of the rubble

By Paul McGeough

I spoke to the silver-haired old man again today. Up and down, he's been my barometer on the mood in Baghdad. He was eager for the overthrow of the regime, but tearful when his daughter miscarried during the early US bombing and shattered when his nephew was killed by American fire as he drove an Iraqi military supply truck.

The old man's national pride kicked in during the early Iraqi military successes in the south, but he was jubilant as the marines rolled into Baghdad.

What did he make of Thursday's (17 April) move by the man the Pentagon wants as Iraq's new leader, the long-term exile Ahmad Chalabi, who positioned himself for a lunge at power by taking over Baghdad's Hunting Club.

Chalabi and his US military escort installed themselves in what was once the exclusive domain of the Baath Party leadership and of Uday Hussein, Saddam Hussein's brutal first son.

"Same, same," the old man told me. "There is no difference."

These are tumultuous, frightening days for Iraqis. A despised regime crumbled in the face of overwhelming force, but for all its power and might the invading army is yet to get a grip on the chaos it has created.

After its forces orchestrated the symbolic toppling of statues of Saddam, the US is still grappling to secure control of the people, the nation and its politics in the early days of what many Iraqis still feel is an occupation, not a liberation.

Life for Iraq's 25 million people has become a desperate struggle to find food and their feet after the Americans ripped away the regime of Saddam, and then stood back as the only form of life and government most of them knew was destroyed in a looting rampage that many are convinced was a part of the invasion plan. All functions of government are paralysed.

Americans might be offended by a comparison with September 11. But if that event traumatised the US, how do we measure the impact of such a rapid, high-powered military invasion on the life of ordinary Iraqis?

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