In Baghdad streets, they're not quaking in their boots

In the bustle of Baghdad yesterday, the impoverished taxi driver condemned the madness of his leader, but the millionaire businessman Faris El-Hadi stood right beside Saddam Hussein, staring down the latest Washington war cry.

Without even being asked a question, the 54-year-old driver exploded. As we swung past a high-rise bunker that is home to one of Saddam's security services, he yelled in English: "This time it will be a big war. We have so much oil - but it is just a bomb to explode; it does not bring us money.

"I fought for Saddam for 12 years. Two wars - Iran and Kuwait. But this time I must take my family to Africa. I will not have another war."

On the day of Washington's most forceful declaration of intent to wage war on Iraq - a declaration which has sent shudders through the region and has Arab governments warning of catastrophe - the taxi driver was the exception in a city that did not seem to skip a beat.

There was no panic - no queuing for petrol, produce or money. The hotels are empty, but staff insisted it is the 50-degree heat of summer, not the threat of war, that is keeping the foreigners away.


And the Iraqis that a foreign reporter can get to - moving among locals is banned without a minder from the Information Ministry - are blase at the prospect of another war.