We followed the UN weapons inspectors today - thinking that this could be one of the last inspections in Iraq.
In 1998, the signal that the Americans were about to bomb was the exodus of the inspectors. From the way George Bush was sounding last night, they could be on their way again soon.
The inspectors don't reveal to anyone - least of all the Iraqis - where they 're going, so we hared down down the road in a Keystone cops style car chase, our battered minibus accelerating through the traffic to keep up with the smart white landcruisers driven by the inspectors and their counterparts from the Iraqi National Monitoring Unit.
We found ourselves on the road south to Basra. After an hour or more, we turned left and sped through the desert until we reached the Al Aziziya Firing Range, where the Iraqis say that in 1991, they buried their entire arsenal of biological weapons - anthrax, botulinum and aflatoxin.
As the white Toyotas sped on through the gates, our journey came to an end. Soldiers waved and shouted - we could go no further. So we stopped and looked round the bleak, flat, grey landscape.
A few mangy dogs barked. On the hazy horizon, we could just make out a digger excavating what I presume was the cavernous hole where the weapons were buried.
In the mid '90s, the Iraqis said this site was too dangerous for inspectors to visit. Now, they're trying to prove that in that yellowish, muddy hole lies the proof that Iraq no longer has biological weapons.
They won't be pleased that the Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix cast doubt on the process today, saying it wasn't just a question of proving how much was destroyed but also how much was produced in the first place.
But they will be pleased that Mr Blix's report was equivocal and Mr Baradei basically said that none of the American or British intelligence reports of a resumed nuclear programme appear to be true.
Not that the men we met at the Al Quds mosque had any doubts. Everyone was keen to talk:
"We don't have any mass destruction weapons!" said one. "The weapons inspectors are all spies sending information back to the CIA."
"The inspectors are welcome. Anyone who comes to Iraq is peace is welcome. But if you come to fight, we will also fight," added an old man with a red-and-white chequered kuffiyeh scarf around his head.
Whatever the weapons inspectors said, his words may yet be put to the test.
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