Notice the practicality in the last 3 sentences of this article.
Iraq freedom and poverty tug-of-war
By James Rodgers
BBC correspondent in Baghdad
The petrol queues in Baghdad still stretch for hundreds of metres. Motorists still do not know how long they will have to wait. American soldiers still keep an eye out for robbers or black marketeers.
Something, though, has changed.
Hashem Jafar, 52, looks weary when he stares ahead at the number of cars between his and the petrol pumps.
Then he smiles: "The bad dream has disappeared. I feel very happy. I can't even express my feelings."
Mufid Madisaleh says the capture of the former dictator brings hope:
"For some people in Iraq, Saddam is a very big symbol. Now that he's been caught, those people will change their ideas, their minds about Saddam. Saddam will completely disappear."
Some people you speak to do not think the Americans should have shown the bearded, bedraggled strongman on TV. They think it was disrespectful.
"I feel bad because the coalition arrested Saddam. I wish the Iraqi people had arrested him themselves, I want them to judge him themselves, not any foreigners," says 50-year-old Salman Daoud.
In the Kadhmiya district of the Iraqi capital, the windows of a spacious villa look out over the River Tigris.
The house - which used to belong to a member of Saddam Hussein's personal guard - is now the offices of the Committee for Free Prisoners. The organisation works to discover the fate of those who disappeared during the dictatorship.
Haider Haraz was in and out of jail for 13 years. He says that his brothers were members of an Islamist party and he was imprisoned for being associated with them. Haider also wants to see Saddam in Iraqi hands, but not just to be put on trial.
"Saddam taught us a tough lesson," he says calmly.
"If he was in my hands, I'd give him hideous torture. He tortured Iraqis. He should get the same and more."
The mood in the "Sunni triangle" north and west of Baghdad is completely different. In the heartland of Saddam Hussein's former power base, there are two emotions: sadness and astonishment.
In al-Dawr, where Saddam was finally dragged from his underground hideout, people are shocked at what has happened.
"Saddam had a gun. Why didn't he resist?" one villager asked me.
No-one can believe that the man who portrayed himself as the heir to a noble Arab warrior tradition did not put up a fight.
Saddam's opponents' relief was best shown by the Iraqi journalists who cheered, whistled and even wept when they heard he was taken.
But in the petrol queue, joy is mixed with more mundane concerns. As Salman Daoud waits, he wonders.
"Saddam was one guy in the government and he controlled everything. We were never in a long line like this, spending the night for petrol. We miss electricity, we miss heating oil. These are very simple things in life," he complains.
"Now we have 25 people in the governing council and they don't do anything good."
Story from BBC NEWS:
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