The pessimists expect splits and anarchy. The reality is a people pulling together and making their country work
Three weeks ago Tripoli was a battleground. The Libyan capital crackled with gunfire. Armed rebels manned barricades in every street. Decomposing bodies lay amid wrecked tanks, charred cars, spent bullets and other debris of war. There was little electricity and no running water or fresh food. Black market petrol cost $100 for 20 litres. Of the 400-odd staff of my once luxurious hotel perhaps 20 were working, and breakfast was tinned pears and tuna.

Today you would barely know there had been a war. The barricades have almost all gone. Shops are open and schools will be shortly. The city is clogged with traffic, not stinking mounds of rubbish. Police are back on the streets. Petrol is about $3 for 40 litres. The hotel has hot running water, maids to make the beds, eggs, fresh fruit and coffee for breakfast. The only obvious vestiges of Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule are the tattered portraits laid in doorways so they can be trodden on.

The speed of Tripoli's recovery has been remarkable, as have the things that have not happened. There has been no Baghdad-style looting of banks and businesses - only of bases and buildings linked to the old regime. There have been some cases of revenge killings and reprisals against regime supporters, but no widespread lynchings and no wholesale purge like that of Iraq's Baathists after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Rebel leaders instead preach reconciliation and forgiveness, arguing that only those members of the old regime with blood on their hands should be punished.

"They will get the fair trials their victims were denied," the family of an abducted businessman who perished in a sealed-up cargo container told me proudly. "We want our children to see that that's the way to do things."

David Fuller's view This is a very encouraging report by The Times' Associate Editor who is also a roving correspondent specialising in foreign affairs.

If Libya's new leaders are able to build on the goodwill and mood of reconciliation described, this would obviously be extremely favourable news for Libya. We should know within the next six months.

A stable, moderate and democratic Libya would encourage uprisings in Syria, Iran and other countries ruled by oppressive regimes. It would also hasten a resumption of much needed oil supplies from Libya.