Australian politicians, content with token/virtue signalling commitments over the last decade and a half, have systematically been making cowards of the ADF
We have form. During the Vietnam conflict the RAAF Huey squadron was directed that they were not to expose themselves to hazardous conditions.
Such was the order that when the troops at the Long Tan battle needed ammo to avoid being totally decimated the senior RAAF bod in HQ refused to supply support, but the US volunteered to go. The senior RAAF bod in HQ offered that he would have to get a thumbs up from Canberra prior to committing. It took a junior pilot to bite the bullet and say "I'm going", and he did, saving the troops. Was a RAAF decision re the hazardous conditions stipulation, not political.