Many Iraqis believe that Saddam and the Americans are somehow in league against them. These are both my enemies, runs the logic, so they must be each other's friend

The more time I spend in Iraq, the less I understand Iraqis. This is partly because fear of car bombs and kidnap keeps me off the streets, and - not speaking Arabic - I rely on translation. But it's also that Iraqi views often don't fit the narrative that western journalism imposes.

The events that are meant to define the new Iraq - the symbolic handover of sovereignty, the court appearance of Saddam Hussein - happen in ultra-secure US-guarded enclaves, far from the reality of people's lives. Western journalism, none the less, requires "reaction" from ordinary Iraqis. So we resort to the "vox pop", a random sampling of opinion in a public place.

Last week, requiring a "reaction" to the arraignment of Saddam Hussein, I sent out our Lebanese cameraman and Iraqi fixer, thinking they might find more authentic responses without me in tow. They sought out the quintessential Arabic coffee shop where men smoke hookahs, drink Turkish coffee and traditionally discuss matters of note. These days, a large satellite TV tuned to al-Arabiya or al-Jazeera tends to dominate the scene. But all the cafes they found initially were without power or television set.

Such was the shortage of TV viewers that our team phoned their colleagues on similar missions, compared notes, and about seven TV crews foregathered in the same coffee shop. Here, enough of the clientele figured out what was expected of them and provided answers we could understand. These roughly translated as: "Hanging's too good for him." There weren't many English speakers around, so the Iraqi fixers interviewed each other - the Channel 4 News fixer was proud of his appearance on CNN and I spied the fixer for Italian TV on another channel.

Quoting your fixer is akin to generalising from conversations with taxi drivers. But fixers know that sometimes it's the only way to get what the foreign journalists need, as so many Iraqis refuse to answer in convenient concepts. Take these answers to the question, "Do you think Saddam Hussein will get a fair trial?", gleaned from our team's visit to the market the day before.

From a male stallholder: "I don't think Saddam Hussein will get a fair trial, because he is an American agent. I think this trial will be a big cover-up in front of the Iraqi people."

From a female shopper: "We hope it will be fair, although we hear there are some preparations for a deal between him and the Americans regarding his foreign bank accounts. He'll be acquitted in return for telling them about his bank accounts."

These answers reveal a narrative that we ignore, because it doesn't fit our perceptions. Many Iraqis believe that somehow Saddam and the Americans are in league against them. The logic goes - these are my enemies, so they must be each other's friend.

On the morning of the court appearance, I went to the office of the Humanitarian Association of the Victims of the Saddam Regime, where I met a woman who had not only lost her brother in Saddam Hussein's gulag but also blamed the regime for the subsequent death of her parents. An educated thirtysomething in a denim jacket, she was the picture of the modern, secular Iraqi. I asked whether she was happy to see Saddam in court: "No, he should not be tried, because he is an Iraqi."

Such nationalistic pride, which hates to see an Iraqi - even Saddam Hussein - publicly humiliated, is common.

All of this suggests a way of interpreting events that is largely lost on outsiders. When I inquired of an Iraqi acquaintance what question he would ask if he had the opportunity - as I did - to interview Iyad Allawi, the new interim prime minister, he came up with: "Why are the communists being allowed to take over the ministry of culture?" A little delving revealed that my friend, who has retained his pre-war job in the ministry "relations department", thinks he has been passed over for scholarships abroad, in favour of party stalwarts and relatives of the minister.

His answer helped me understand how hard it is for Iraqis to think realistically about the big questions, when they can see no further than their own survival. For 30 years, they had no control over their lives, and even today few can see a way to influence events. The insurgents use violence to force change - the rest just try to keep their heads above water in the wake of the violence. A new government means a new structure of patronage.

The new interim government is meant to bridge the gap between the western way of seeing things and the Iraqi version of events, but this may be a larger chasm than we realise.

"Try to understand," said our fixer. "For 30 years Saddam Hussein stole our soul." Now there's a concept no British or American politician has ever had to factor in.

Lindsey Hilsum is international editor at Channel 4 News

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