Today is Saddam's birthday. He would be 66 if he was alive. I want to see how the residents of Baghdad commemorate this day. Reports say that many Iraqis, cowed by fear and still not used to the freedom suddenly thrust upon them, are convinced he's planning one last birthday surprise before he goes down in flames.

In the past, his birthday was a week-long celebration of his "great achievements" with parades, poems and more portraits and statues erected for the occasion all around Iraq. Bureaucrats were forced to celebrate with cakes and balloons. Schools had the week off. Iraqi TV had round the clock coverage of the celebrations.... I remember a few months before the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, a friend of mine was enthralled by the whole spectacle and would force us to sit through the ceremonies. I used to yell at him to turn it off and that this lunatic had killed and tortured thousands of Iraqis and that we were probably next!