Well maybe those comments apply only to Army then!!
Indeed they do apply to many parts of the Army and to a few in the RAAF too!
Must take a lot of guts to insult an organisation whose members do not have the same freedom of speech as other Australians have.
Good point. That fact does make his coments a very low blow. ADF personell at all levels need to have more of a voice in the public domain, not just career-minded senior officers.
There is a perception in the civillian community that the ADF do not
Defend as their title suggests but are professional combatants (even meatheads) that earn a living fighting conflicts that have little to do with Australians (I am not some lefty tree hugger, I have known soldiers to join for this very reason). There is a disconnect.
To Politicians like Latham (Whom I can't stand and would never have voted for), Howard and Rudd war is a political game and the ADF the tool for playing that game. The public become cynical and this perception becomes reality.