Iraq may be a republic but it is still a republic of fear, writes Michael Jansen in Baghdad.
The checkpoint manned by armed Iraqi police controls the flow of authorised people and vehicles into the walled compound containing the Palestine and Sheraton hotels where foreign businessmen, contractors and journalists stay when in town.
The Rashid hotel, once filled with official guests, has been incorporated into the US-protected Green Zone, along with the international conference centre and the Jumhurriya Palace.
Here the concrete walls and rolls of concertina wire are augmented by huge steel wire and fabric baskets filled with grey Iraqi earth.
Visitors must pass through three checkpoints and endure two body searches to gain access as a guest of someone holding an occupation administration identity card. Everywhere armed guards in gate houses ask for a "hawiya", an identity pass at the gate and are given a visitor's pass.
Everywhere in the city, barriers and checkpoints divert traffic from traditional quarter to quarter routes onto unknown byways, from main thoroughfares onto unpaved, potholed roads, locking cars into hooting jams spewing noxious fumes from black market petrol cut with kerosene or mixed with water. Drivers hesitate to halt and ask for directions for fear of being hijacked.
Some years ago an Iraqi exile, Kennan Makiya, published a book entitled Republic of Fear about Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Fear continues to rule Iraq. Saddam has been gone for eight months and in US custody for a week but fear grips both occupied and occupiers. Fear of cars with suicide bombers behind the wheel, fear of being caught in firefights between US troops and resistance fighters, fear of gangs of criminals who rob, hijack, kidnap and rape.
A friend in the US-dominated administration says life inside the Green Zone's walls and wire is coloured by fear. Two weeks ago he was walking to his billet in the palace at night with colleagues when two rockets crashed into the park. His companion shouted that he should hit the ground just as a third burst close by, shrapnel shredding trees and bushes.
In spite of the continuous danger of such attacks, he says some people never leave the compound, never meet an Iraqi, eat a meal in a local restaurant or go shopping. Many denizens of the Green Zone go out only if convoyed in armoured cars carrying armed guards in flack jackets.
Iraqis who resume their jobs in their country's administration fear assassination by the resistance, former members of the banned Baath party fear being killed by people seeking revenge for the multitude of abuses and atrocities committed during Saddam's reign.
Iraqis fear raids on their homes by US forces. Thousands have been arrested and held for months without charges being laid. The families of many do not know where detainees are, or whether they are alive or dead. Girls and young women from traditional backgrounds who go to school or leave their homes on an errand risk being assaulted or killed for behaviour deemed unsuitable by ultra-conservative elements.
A young Westerner who tries to trace the missing says: "Iraqis are afraid the whole time. They are depressed and in despair. They don't believe they have a future."
My driver, Dia, who has a BA in business administration from a private university and a modest job in a ministry, remarks: "Before the war I earned $75 (€60) and I could live well. Now my salary is $100 (€81) and I can't afford anything."
He wants to go abroad to study for his master's degree. "I can't stand this situation any longer. I need to get out. I must leave Iraq."
But few countries grant entry to Iraqis seeking escape. A professor at an engineering faculty says his salary is worth about a quarter of its previous value.
He fears for his students who cannot complete their course of study because instruments and equipment in the laboratories of his department were looted in the aftermath of the war. "Some of them are not young, they have come here on leave from jobs. If they don't get their degrees, their careers could be ruined." Iraqis fear the US and its allies will cut and run, perhaps as early as next summer when the occupation administration is due to hand over to a transitional Iraqi government. Ever lurking in the background is the fear that the country could erupt in civil war. Iraq could become either the democratic powerhouse of the region or another killing field.
As one Iraqi friend quipped, "We will be either like Germany or Rwanda."