Notebook: The New Baghdad

Veteran producer and CBS News Baghdad Bureau Chief Larry Doyle has covered the Iraq war since the invasion in March 2003. After taking a two-month break from the action, he offered his insight on the results of the U.S. troop surge.

The surly reception at immigration seems unchanged and the baggage handlers and customs inspectors still think their gifts are insufficient. Welcome back.

Same old ... well, you know what I think.

Until our three armored cars and one cargo truck convoy begins to hit the city's streets I'm starting to think I've seen this movie before - many times.

But there is something different and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's too subtle. But something's happening on the other side of the bullet-proof windows that shield us. It's what we take for granted in the cities we left. It's a street pulse. My God, there are people actually using a kids' park and gathering at an ice cream shop.

Are they crazy? Don't they know car and suicide bombers love crowds? But we pass through this tableau quickly and that's when the light comes on. We're in thick traffic, the kind that used to raise my neck hairs, but it's flowing and with purpose. Are those traffic cops really directing all these cars? Well, they are but this must be a one-time event.

Settle down, things will be chaotic at the next corner. But the next corner and the next street and the ones after that reveal more strollers, real family units, stores and street vendors open and begging for business.

I'd been out of Baghdad for almost two months but followed the Iraq story carefully. I have almost daily conversations with our bureau here when I'm away. It is clear the story had changed.

A summation of the statistics used to measure the war showed downturns in most of the grim numbers. Numerically, the summer surge of troops could be called a success but I wasn't sure the figures reflected the reality of Iraqi life. I'm still not sure but I do hear a lot more laughter than I remember. The laughter quickly fades however when the discussion turns to, "So, how's you life?"

Then the stories of power shortages, absence of clean water, no garbage collection are as abundant as the services are lacking.

You can say the surge has created a new sense of security or you could argue that the sectarian separation of neighborhoods is so complete that they are no longer worth a fight. Whichever scenario works for you there is no denying the city has quieted and in some quarters there is evidence of external and internal refugees trickling back.

In fact, the Iraqi embassy in Damascus is offering to pay travel expenses for Iraqis to return home from Syria.

This small gesture from the government is nice but it seems the Shia dominated leadership is still not understanding or seizing the opportunities the surge has given them.

As an American officer told me, "We've done our part now it's time for the Iraqis to step up. We can't clean up all their messes."

But there is no public evidence the government is ready to take even baby steps. At a recent town meeting in a city that is considered a security success story, where hundreds of refugees have returned, the government representatives were hammered on the lack of services. They had no answers - only vague promises and that's not what the people came home to hear.

Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods are still denied power and water by Shiite militias who control the distribution centers. Shia are still hunted by Sunni hit teams.

There is no reconciliation because no leaders on either side seem willing to risk the personal and political sacrifice such a gesture might require.

A witty Marine major who's a movie buff told me he thinks he's three quarters into a Hitchcock movie and after sitting through plot twists and surprises he still doesn't know how it will end.

He said he loved the suspense of movies but hated the suspense here. The reel is winding down, the good guys and bad guys are still on the screen and the outcome is surely in doubt.

And so we'll continue to ride in our armored cars and look through the bullet-proof glass at a city that is just starting to laugh again - a little.

By Larry Doyle