Journalistic, academic and other armchair second-guessing of ADF commanders about their decisions in complex situations overseas is plain silly.
13 June 2006
Letter to The Canberra Times
(published Friday, 16 June 2006)
With reference to Nic Stuart's opinion piece ("Troops go missing in action", June 13, p11), Nic was a junior Army reservist many years ago and is sitting in a Canberra-based armchair.
Mick Slater [the commander of the Army's 3rd Brigade] is an experienced senior infantryman trying to cope with a complex and nuanced tactical, political, social and public-health situation in Dili.
The gut instinct, personal experience and balance-of-probabilities tests all make me put my money on Mick, not Nic.
We may not do it much in Canberra, or indeed in Australia generally, but in overseas operations at least, let's let our commanders command.
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