Beneath a rare surviving statue of Saddam Hussein, Qusay counts the last 30 rounds in his magazine and delivers a common epitaph on Tony Blair’s Iraq adventure.

“It went wrong from the beginning,” shrugged the 22-year-old Shia soldier, guarding a bridge across the Tigris. “But we rely on them now. If the Americans and British stay, armed groups will keep on attacking them. If they leave, the chaos will get worse.” He shrugs. “There is no solution.” Fifty of his friends have been killed in eight months, but he blames the Iraqi Government, not the US and Britain, for failing to supply his unit adequately.

Outside the bubble of the Green Zone that he guards, the US “surge” has brought extra American troops on to the streets; but Baghdad waits to see if it will bring lasting security. In a computer shop a wall sign reads: “What did you do for Iraq’s interests today?” Farah, 23, a headscarved assistant of mixed Sunni and Shia parentage, believes Mr Blair would have no good answer. “Blair is finished? Not before he finished us,” she says curtly.

“Life is extremely difficult, we can’t move outside, we’re threatened — especially women. The only thing we ask for now is security.”

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Farther north, Sunni insurgents had a stark verdict. “Tony Blair’s resignation is to get rid of the problems created by the occupation of Iraq. The servant followed his master and Bush has made many bad political decisions, in Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Abu Muhammad, a fighter in Dhuluaa.

In Basra, hardline Sadrists want a coalition pullout; others fear that it could be a disaster. “It was the right decision to invade Iraq and get rid of Saddam Hussein, but they created sectarian conflicts,” Ibrahim Razzaq, head of a health centre, said. “We want them to pull out from the cities, but not from Iraq because they represent protection for teachers and skilled people.”

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