Nosegear
That was quite an outburst. Don't go, it was MOR we were trying to get rid of!
The tone you've set makes it difficult to offer a polite rebuke however, irrelevantly, my direct family line extends three generations of conflict with a death in WW1, a maiming in New Guinea and two lots of permanent disability from Vietnam. It would be romantic if, as you suggest, they served to defend our right to free speech and a tif on pprune.
I would say, it is successive New Zealand voters, who have allowed their defence forces to become impotent in key areas, that has trivialized the ANZAC tradition. Few Australians would doubt, New Zealanders would "answer the call" and honour their current stated government policy of " meeting Australian alliance commitments by maintaining a close defence relationship in pursuit of common security interests". With short lead time into modern conflict, a willingness to provide barely trained but able bodies for conflict, like in WW2, is comical. It is trained professionals that are required, of which, beyond benign peacekeeping operations, your SAS is probably the only asset that is worth the logistical commitment to put into the line of fire.
Tom Clancy, incidentally, would be very imaginitive in coming up with role for NZ in any of his books.
As I've said before, give up your parochialism, disband your air force completely. What a joke, 2500 air force personnel, unneccessary training structures in place, even got yourself an Air Force band, plenty of good messes aswell. All for no combat ability and questionable other capabilities- a ridiculous waste of money!
New Zealanders wont though, any such disbandment a total admission of bludging. Wheras as now, you can pretend and bulldust your allies that you have relevant capability in place.
Last edited by Gnadenburg; 15th Oct 2005 at 07:35.