WHAT WE NOW know as Gulf War One exploded into action on a Tuesday morning, January 17, 1991, taking with it any previous order in my personal life. The experience was by turns exhilarating, terrifying and sobering. I learned about the use and abuse of power, about powerlessness and the vulnerability of becoming a scapegoat.

The invitation to retrieve memories of a past life crisis coincided within days of significant victories for the Coalition of the Willing in Gulf War Two, 13 years later. Nothing like the same intensity of emotions that erupted around my ABC colleagues and me in 1991 occurred the second time round. Passions were inflamed throughout the country. But this time the ABC was not the lightning rod.