Scha Trudeau (the son of the late Canadian Prime Minster Pierre Trudeau) has been in Baghded since March to make a documnetary film. His articles in Macleans magazine give an interesting view of Baghdad.

The man heads for me and growls something. "Canadian journalist!" Omar and I both repeat. He opens the door and yanks me out. With a wave of his Kalashnikov, he motions toward a mud wall, then shoves me. I search his face for someone I can appeal to, but there is no one there. Omar stands by the car shouting a man's name: "Sayid Mortaba." He is an important religious figure in Thora -- and a friend of Omar's. We have visited him a few times before. Another man arrives; he speaks English. I tell him we are on our way to visit Sayid Mortaba. He is suspicious. "You are Sayid Mortaba's friend? Where does he live, then?" I don't know the address, but, eager to get out of this place, I try to bluff, saying I would be happy to show him. The English-speaker slyly says: "Of course, but first come with us."

He and the Kalashnikov-toting man lead me deep into a dusty laneway. Am I being taken away to be slaughtered? We arrive at a scene of devastation. Amid the mud shanties, there is a space filled with rubble. "This was his house," says the English-speaker, motioning to the gunman. "This was his family. Three children are under there."

I turn to the gunman and say I'm sorry. He silently surveys the mess. "I used to be a teacher," the English-speaker tells me. "This makes no sense. Why bomb Thora?" I am taken to a home to drink tea with them. Sitting across from the gunman, I see that this broken man, still cradling his gun, has no shoes. He has been going barefoot through the trash-filled streets. "I am sorry that I was going to kill you," he finally tells me. "When I have a house again, you will come stay with me."

Another man I have become friends with is Tariq, a Christian. "We were one million Christians a decade ago. Now we are 600,000," he says. "Does Bush realize what he is going to do to us with his war?" Most Christians accept Saddam because he has always protected them from Muslim fanaticism. Surrounded by Islam, they are extremely devout and take such things as Lent and chastity very seriously, although Iraqi Christians celebrate alcohol as one of the pillars of their freedom, while Muslim clerics discourage drinking.

By Baghdad standards, the Christians are rich and successful. Most of them, men and women, are university educated and are business people or professionals. They tend to make light of the situation here, but under the surface, they too are very tense -- perhaps because they have much to lose.