One month later - Saddam is gone

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A statue fell in Paradise Square, a symbol of televised triumph. But for the people on nearby Paradise Street, where life is lived day to day, symbols don't light your home at night, and history doesn't keep the looters at bay.

"Freedom is useless," says a man at No. 1, Hani Hashem, "unless you have security, too." A stroll up his block-long street found Hashem's neighbors sharing his view.

They remember well the day a month ago when President Saddam Hussein, cast as 16 feet of bronze, was toppled from his pedestal in the plaza at the end of their street. Some recall it as a turning point, others with regret. Most focus not on history, but on realities.

"What kind of life is this? We have no electricity, no water," complained pajama-clad Nannu Elias at No. 26. Reminded the Americans promise city services eventually, he snapped back, "We might all die before then."

A statue for freedom

The 63-year-old heart patient didn't venture out that day, April 9, when the scene broadcast live worldwide from Sahat al-Firdos -- Paradise Square -- became an icon for a war, a symbol of final victory, as joyful Iraqis helped by a tugging U.S. Army tank retriever pulled down one of the best-known Baghdad monuments to the longtime dictator Saddam.

On Saturday, a dozen young artists clambered over a scaffold surrounding that pedestal, preparing to build a new statue -- a figure representing "Freedom."

Did they have authorization? one was asked. "From whom?" he retorted.

On this street and plaza, as in the rest of Iraq, businesses and government agencies are struggling to restore normalcy. At the Agriculture Ministry, American officials met Saturday with Iraqi bureaucrats in hopes of finding a temporary leadership to work with.

Waiting for news outside, ministry engineer Ghassan Yassin, 53, remembered April 9 as "a good day for all Iraqis. The people of Iraq want democracy. They lived without it for 35 years. It was like Russians under Stalin."

Damaged power grid

But a walk up Paradise Street -- past the squatters in the abandoned intelligence office, the closed businesses, the Army tank crew, the jobless men, the darkened homes, the government ministry -- offered a bleak snapshot of the rest of life here a month after a U.S.-British invasion brought down Saddam's statue along with his Baath Party government.

The new U.S. civil administration here says about 50 percent of Baghdad's electrical needs are being met, many weeks after U.S. attacks crippled the power grid. But people on Paradise Street say they get only two or three hours of electricity and sometimes daylong blackouts.

Anchoring the north end of Paradise Street, a 3rd Infantry Division tank crew keeps watch over the Agriculture Ministry and the traffic.

The Army has too few troops here to police a city of 5 million people, said crew chief Staff Sgt. Michael Deliberti, 31, of Tampa, Fla. "We left the Education Ministry to come here, and they just started looting there again," he said.

After months away, these soldiers' thoughts, naturally, turn westward. "We're hoping our next bounce is going home," Deliberti said.

They're not alone. On Paradise Street, as elsewhere, many Iraqis -- even those pleased with Saddam's ouster -- want foreign troops out of their country. It's a sentiment that has found expression right there in Paradise Square, on the base of the vanished statue, where someone with imperfect spelling and bold paint has told the Americans their work is completed.

"ALL DONNE," it reads. "GO HOME."