The verse of the late great Iraqi poet Jamil al-Zahawi appeared on Sunday to inspire patrons of the cafe that bears his name. They have little doubt of the outcome of the encroaching battle of Baghdad.

Well-conditioned by regime propaganda, the regulars at this 100-year-old establishment on Rashid Street in the heart of Baghdad play down the advance of American troops on the capital and the "lies" about their impending assault to seize Saddam Hussein's seat of power.

"We have no doubt that victory will be ours. The Americans have a superior air force but on the ground they're nothing but a paper tiger," said Faisal Abdullah, a retired civil servant.

Seated on one of the cafe's wooden benches and drawing from a water pipe, Abdullah casts an eye over a government-controlled newspaper emblazoned with the headline "The Arab press welcomes Iraqi resistance to American troops."

"Victory is already at hand for us. I think that the war will be over in a week," he said, recalling US defeats in Vietnam and Somalia.

Others wave their faces with the papers as they sit beneath rusted fans frozen in mid-spin by a sudden power outage that has dragged on for days in most districts of the city.

The blackout has also silenced the vintage television sitting in the corner that used to air Saddam's rousing speeches and Iraqi military anthems.

An old merchant lumbers up to offer sandals "made in Syria" for 4,500 dinars (1.50 dollars). A few poorly shod customers slip off their own worn footwear and try the new ones on.

"I sell two or three a day. Before the war, I sold more and the price was 7,500 dinars (2.50 dollars) a pair," he laments.

A portrait of Saddam, seated on the ground in miltary garb and smoking a cigar, is hung on one of the walls above a list of drink prices.

On another wall, Zahawi who died in 1936 at the age of 73, looks out from a large photograph on this intellectuals' haunt.

For Azhar Saleh, a bearded 30-year-old, reports that the Americans are on their way to encircling the capital after seizing Baghdad's main airport are nothing more than "the media fuss they are making to create the impression they are winning the war."

"They may unload small numbers of soldiers at the gates of Baghdad but they will be destroyed by our forces.

"The war will end in our favor because the American soldiers are nothing but mercenaries who were paid to sow destruction in our country," Saleh said.

It's the same message from his neighbor at the table.

"The mercenaries dropped some of their soldiers at the airport but their throats were slit and their bodies are being cleared," he said.

Not far from the cafe, on Al-Mutannabi Street, Mohammed Abdul Jalil is the only used-book seller to keep coming to work each day since the start of the war. He spreads his books on the sidewalk but the passers-by, who used to walk through this old quarter by the hundreds, can be counted on his hands.

An Arabic translation of a biography of former British prime minister Winston Churchill is the centerpiece of his collection.

"The defeat of the Americans in Baghdad is certain because our army can rout them," he insists.

Saad Ali-Hussein, who runs a stationery shop across the street, agrees.

"We will overcome because we are defending our fatherland and our honor," he said.

"I am not afraid of dying because generations to come must know that we fought for our country and our principles," he said.

SPACE.WIRE