On this day in 2003

March 18 2003

Weapons inspectors are pulled out of Iraq, Saddam makes a last-minute bid to avert war, admitting that Iraq had once possessed weapons of mass destruction to defend itself from Iran and Israel - but insisting that it no longer has them. Some journalists head out of Iraq towards Jordan while others remain. The media gears up.
Two peace activists target a B52 in RAF Fairford. They were stopped after attaching photographic images of ordinary Iraqi people labeled collateral damage? to the fence, planting white poppies, a symbol of peace and sowing seeds to represent life.

At dawn in a largely deserted oceanic former penal colony, two friends climb to the top of a national icon. Normally the small, dry, continents politicians would leap at an opportunity to exult such patriotic, endearing, qualities as mateship and larrikinisim. On this day last year there are no ministerial belly laughs. National security has been breached by little more then an exterior decorators instinct and the tools of the home improvement trade, paint rollers and an operatic rouge.