I’ve been reminded of that man because I’ve just been awarded an mbe for my work in Baghdad. It’s a national award and I’d like to think it recognises the importance of journalists being on both sides of a conflict like the Iraq war. I’d like to think that, because I want to believe it was worth risking my life and putting my wife Bhavna through a month of trauma to tell the world what was happening to the residents of Baghdad as the Coalition let loose its fury. But eight months on, I can’t help wondering who was actually listening. For weeks we described how the Iraqi people hated the idea of being invaded by a foreign army, let alone a western one. Of course they despised Saddam but they also blamed the West for their economic hardships and for thrusting another war upon them. And yet the Coalition forces in Baghdad, even now, seem surprised, and a little betrayed, by the idea that their troops are being attacked by people they thought they’d come to liberate.