The withdrawal of US troops from Iraqi cities marks a historic turning point, with the Iraqis seeing themselves once again as being in control of their own country. But the exaggerated self-confidence of their leaders could come at a high cost to Iraqi citizens. The oil-rich nation, though full of potential, remains extremely vulnerable.

If there is one man in Iraq whose face betrays the full spectrum of triumphs, failures and tragic events of the last six years, then it is the deeply exhausted and sometimes excessively cheerful neurologist Mowaffak al-Rubaie.

Al-Rubaie, like most of those who currently rule Iraq, returned to the country in 2003 in the wake of US tanks and troops, after spending decades in exile. He was appointed Baghdad's national security adviser in 2004, came face-to-face with his mortal enemy Saddam Hussein in a prison and, on a cold winter's night three years later, led the former dictator up a flight of steps to the gallows. "I held his arm this tightly," he says, clenching his fists. "This tightly." What a victory -- and what satisfaction.

He watched as his country plunged into terror, and he tried to put a positive spin on the situation, even in 2006 and 2007, when up to 3,000 people died in murders and bombings some months. He traveled to Washington, first to ask the Americans to be patient and, later, when things slowly began to improve, to negotiate with them over their withdrawal. He went to the Iraqi city of Najaf and the Iranian capital Tehran to obtain the blessings of the mullahs.