Distance to Karbala highway sign

Book Excerpt

... as we rolled west I kept looking for a sign telling me how far it was to Baghdad but never saw one. Finally, I asked Professor.

“Baghdad is a political city unimportant to Iranians. What is important to us is the Shia holy city of Kerbala.”

So rather than distances to other places in Iraq the only signs I saw mentioned Kerbala. Though nearly 20 years have passed since the end of the [Iran-Iraq] war the signs still haven’t been updated to include other cities.

Showing only the closeness of Kerbala was initially an effort by the Khomeini government to spur on the army and populace during the war, to get them to put together the powerful final push required to win the holy city for Iran. It never worked, the war stalemated not far from the current border, but the signs, and their subtle message, remain. An American asking why the Iranian military was unable to take the city is quickly told that U.S. and European support for Saddam were what prevented the Iranians from winning.