About the only person's cred which has been savaged here ozbiggles is your own, and by your own hand with an entirely unsubstantiated acccusational and ad hominem post.
Let's run through a few things you said shall we?
The usual brigade (and note there only a couple)
Well, given the immediate repercussion such a stand invites, (eg: Mills on this issue; Wilkie,
former government intelligence analyst on the Iraq pretext and subsequent mess) or potential for career free fall to anyone speaking out from within, that's entirely understandable.
of people who will appear on this show have about as much cred as former Prime ministers (and there is nothing sadder) coming out and saying what they would do now, when they did nothing of the sort when they were running the place.
Discredit the credibility of the opposing view with ad hominem attack. Of course, without any specific allegation or even base substantiation for your accusations denying opportunity of rebuttal.
As for cred. Hmmmm...Let me see now. A former Air Commander Australia with the balls to risk reputation and 'club membership' by appearing publically on a program like 4 Corners, ....or the anonymous unfounded rhetoric of ozbiggles? ....
None of theses OFs
Says pretty much a lot about your perspective? Would you call the current ACA an "OF" too?
And you're first hand familiar with the Su's avionics, weps, handling and specific force doctrine of real and potential operators with the Su27 -> 30 through 37 family and sub-variants et al are you? ...other than, like most of us, what you might have "have read in a book".
They have another agenda.
Since you make the degoragtory accusation, you might spell out the specifics you believe it to be for us lesser mortals to understand. The only "agenda" I see is that the truth of the matter regarding the Super Hornet acquisition be revealed so our pilots lives aren't encumbered with a sheep dressed up in wolf's clothing.
The abundantly obvious was confirmed by the process not only not going to tender, but the representatives of contenting competitors not even being 'received at court'. Smacks of, our (then) next boat, "Collins class" type political considerations over-riding sound decision making.