As the sands ran out on the final deadline of the final US ultimatum, I was lying on my "executive mattress" at the Palestine Hotel, Baghdad, biting my nails and wondering if I was going to die. I wasn't the only one. Even at 3am, the lights in the flats opposite were on, with people moving around, getting themselves cups of coffee, coming to their windows to stare up at the sky. In London, we had the Prime Minister's word for it that he, too, slept badly, and I think that, on this occasion, we can believe him.