There was a time when Baghdad was a normal city. Well, normal by the standards of an Arab dictatorship that seemed to have enough oil to make its dreams come true.

To come here, you bought a ticket and stepped aboard an airliner. At Saddam International Airport taxis waited to take you to your hotel.

Traffic was regulated by a system of red, amber and green lights and policemen who blew whistles and waved their arms.

The dictatorship was always close by. But it was easy, as a foreigner, to ignore it. The streets in the centre of town were clean. Cars were new. The roads were smooth. People were friendly.

People still are friendly in Baghdad. That is about the only thing that has not changed since I first came here 13 years ago.

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When it is no longer possible to buy a ticket for an aeroplane, and take a taxi to a hotel, then a city is sliding into the ranks of the urban dead.

After the 1991 war, when flights stopped, we used to drive in from Jordan, a long journey across the desert - not as bad as it sounds because Saddam Hussein replaced the old camel roads with a six-lane highway.

Now that is considered too dangerous because of bandits, so we come in from Kuwait, along the Americans' main supply route.
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"Saddam's gone and everything's different," an Iraqi I know here grumbled.

A bizarre Saddam Hussein nostalgia has gripped some people. What they say is that if you did not want to threaten the regime, it would leave you alone. In return it delivered safe streets.

Petty thieves, one man explained to me, were sent to prison where they were beaten and taught a lesson.

Murderers and rapists were shot. One of Saddam Hussein's last acts was to empty the prisons. Out poured the thieves, and the murderers and rapists who had not been executed yet.
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The fact that Saddam Hussein has been removed is no longer enough for most Iraqis. They do not like being occupied, especially when the occupation has not made their lives better.

The invaders have bitten off something really big here. They have created a turning point in the Middle East that will determine the way it goes in the next generation.

They say they can create a new ally, a democratic Iraq that will spread Western ideas of freedom - in a region where millions think that that the west stands for an assault on their religion and culture.

America and Britain, and whoever else they can persuade to help out, will need deep pockets, tenacity, and luck.

» BBC NEWS | From Our Own Correspondent | Hardship and nostalgia in Iraq