Fear and Humor on Saddam's Birthday

April 28 -- It's his party, and he'll cry if he wants to.

Saddam Hussein turns 66 today — if in fact he is still alive — but the deposed dictator of Iraq doesn't seem to have much to celebrate this year.

In the past month, Saddam has lost control of his country and been targeted by scores of missiles and bombs. If he survived, he has seen his military routed by coalition forces, and the Iraqi people cheer his downfall. U.S. troops have been relaxing in his palaces and looters have helped themselves to Saddam's prized personal possessions.

Saddam probably would have been wise to take astrologer Eugenia Last's advice for Tauruses this month: "Take a bit of time on the 20th, 21st and 22nd to go over your financial situation."

That advice presumably goes for celebrities such as actress Ann-Margret, Jay Leno and Penelope Cruz, who share Saddam's birthday.

But there are signs Saddam is still alive. His deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, has told U.S. officials that Saddam survived the two coalition airstrikes meant to kill him, USA Today reported today. However, defense officials cautioned that Aziz, who surrendered to coalition forces last week, has lied to interrogators about other matters.

In past years, Saddam's birthday has been an occasion for endless rounds of tributes, parades and new statues to honor the Iraqi ruler.

Last year, Saddam threw himself a countrywide party, complete with tens of thousands of Iraqis staging highly choreographed anti-American demonstrations. Saddam's son Qusai renamed Iraq's state-run Youth Television station "Birthday Television" for the occasion, and Saddam was given a giant pink birthday cake in his hometown of Tikrit, along with a golden statue of the 12th-century warrior prince Saladdin.

There was also a road race in his honor, dozens of new Saddam statues and the premiere of a new play based on a novel Saddam is believed to have written. The performance received rave reviews in the government-controlled press, which also featured scores of love letters to Saddam from Iraqis.