What was that you were saying, Brendan?

When they intervened in East Timor in 1999 Australian-led forces had little difficulty in 'restoring order'. Most of the violence perpetrated by Indonesian-backed militia had already abated by the time the Aussies and their allies got boots on the ground, and the faction of Fretilin which opposed the intervention chose to resist it non-violently.

In 2006 Australia faces a very different situation. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson's boast that "the simple exercise of deploying Australian Defence Force personnel...will have a peacemaking effect" is already sounding very hollow, as Aussie troops hidden in Black Hawks and tanks struggle to bring Dili under their control. Only a day or so into their mission, the troops are already coming under fire.

The Aussies cannot even secure the embassy of their Anzac ally, it seems. Helen Clark may be wondering what she's got herself into...