Sunfish, you can invoke this cartoon military image all you like, and blame all the ills of the aviation world on it, but it's not helping anyone. If anything, military competence implies the antithesis of what you're saying - the ability to make decisions under conditions of great uncertainty, such as in times of conflict!
Anyway, you reckon ex-RAAFies have stuffed aviation, I don't, so perhaps we should just leave it there. I venture to say that if you sacked all these military people and replaced them with people from any other sector of the community, they wouldn't fare much differently, you just wouldn't have such a convenient handle with which to attack them.
Aussie Bob, yes, politicians live in a world of bull**** and media spin. That's the opposite of what I'd like to see but apparently we're stuck with it. However, if this is Dick's style of getting a message across there's no way I'd vote for him - it's blatant **** stirring in my book, not honesty, and he seems to just say any provocative thing to get a reaction, a bit like any publicity is better than none. Classic shock journalism - pose a provocative question, throw in a bit of suggestion and innuendo, but then when it comes down to it the real story is a disappointment after the hyped buildup.