Neither in Baghdad, nor in Kerbala, was there any sign of extra security on the streets.

ECONOMIST: Saddam??s sleep of the unjust

Similarly, when the Sunni Muslim Mr Hussein inaugurated his triumphal arches, he rode through them on a white horse in self-conscious reference to the steed of Hussein, the Shia Muslim hero martyred at nearby Kerbala, without any apparent embarrassment at Mr Hussein's ongoing repression of his own Shia citizens.

ECONOMIST: Monumental