We approached Karbala from the east, the rising sun somewhat to our left. In the northeast part of the city were two large buildings, each with two minarets separated by a plaza with lines of trees. The gold clad domes shone in the morning sun and already you could see that there were hundreds of thousands people gathering there.

“The far one is the shrine of Imam Husayn bin Ali, and the near one for his half brother Abbas. Husayn was the last living grandson of Mohammed the prophet,” Clarke told me.

“How many people are there,” I asked.

“Not sure. They are expecting between 1.5 and 1.7 million today,” he answered.

As we flew by I thought of Michael’s description of these people as “just ants.” Looking down, that didn’t seem far from the truth. From our altitude I could barely make out individuals but the plaza and surrounding streets seem over flowing.

Rodgers held up his hand and was talking into his mike. Suddenly he made a fist and pumped it.

“Yes!!” he shouted.