Sledgehammer The toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad's Paradise Square remains one of the most arresting images of the 21st century.   A year ago this week, newspapers and television screens were filled with pictures of a strongman with a sledgehammer delivering mighty blows to the column supporting the hated dictator's likeness. Others showed Iraqis waving the Stars and Stripes, the jubilant citizens of Baghdad embracing the forces of liberation.   The victorious images have long faded from our screens and left behind harsh realities. Baghdad, a city that should have been safe in the hands of the coalition forces, is now a hotbed of anarchy: why did this happen?   One reason is that a year ago US forces had their own priorities and those were securing the Ministries of Oil and the Interior. The rest of the city was left to the mercy of the mob and coalition troops stood by and watched as centres of culture and antiquity were looted. Government ministries were destroyed and archives burned while murder and kidnappings were rife. Politicians and military leaders told us this was a subjugated population letting off steam, celebrating the fall of Saddam Hussein. We believed them.   One of the mainstays of US reasoning behind the invasion of Iraq was - officially at least - an altruistic desire to free its people from oppression and bondage, to help set up an exemplary democracy intended as a beacon of hope across the Islamic world. In less than three months this democratic government is due to be set in place, yet the country is in chaos.   The joyous scenes of a year ago proved little more than a spontaneous reaction and the mood of the country is irrevocably changed. Iraqi resistance does not see coalition forces as peacekeepers and administrators but as an occupying force of Infidels eager to exploit the country's resources for its own political or material ends. The fact is that many Iraqis do not want us in their country any longer and are in open revolt.   Uniting now under the leadership of radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, the Iraqi Shias are "a small group of criminals and thugs," according to Ricardo Sanchez, US military commander in Iraq. He maintains there is "no place for a renegade militia."   Sanchez's method of dealing with this "small group" has seen American Marines smash their way into Fallujah using tanks and helicopter gunships. Many innocent civilians, women and children lie among the 450 Iraqi casualties so far. While the bloodbath continues Mark Kimmit, Sanchez's number two, tells us confidently that Sadr's militia will be "destroyed."   Heavy-handed American aggression in the battle for the streets of Fallujah has brought a swelling of nationalist support, crowds of people gathering outside the main blood bank in Baghdad in a gesture of solidarity. "It is barbaric what is happening in Fallujah," said oil engineer Abdul Rahman Khalil, after he had given blood. "The Americans don't see the difference between resistance."   Many Iraquis believe the Americans are killing innocent people as a collective punishment for the deaths of the four US civilians killed and mutilated in Fallujah last week. "They talk about terrorism against the Twin Towers in the US," said one, "But why is it not terrorism when American planes hit a mosque and kill 40 people?"   Support for the United States is already shaky in many coalition countries since the Madrid bombings and the subsequent fall of the Spanish government. Chilling video footage of three Japanese hostages shown on Al-Jazeera is unlikely to ease pressure on junior members of the coalition to withdraw their troops.   With upcoming presidential elections and leading figures of his administration Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice currently hard-pressed in the investigation into the 9/11 atrocity, President Bush does not have his troubles to seek. He is looking to the UN as he seeks a dignified exit strategy from the situation in Iraq.   The street fighting in Fallujah has already been described by one seasoned US Marine commander as equal to the worst fighting of the Vietnam War. That was a conflict that casts a long shadow over US foreign policy even today, but Islam is the new communism and George Bush must tread very carefully in the run-up to November.