Reservists are posted to positions not filled by permanents and the number of highly skilled personnel in some reserve elements are not sufficient to meet operational requirements. Our Government is seriously neglecting the security of this country and its neighbours by reducing the ADF to a token force. To think of entertaining the idea of further cuts is simply irresponsible and should be dismissed. W. Kelly, Rosemeadow. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and John Howard's attempt to tie increased defence spending to the GST, in an attempt to mask the smell of this dead polecat, is surely one of the more desperate moves of his career.
Patriotism is indeed the last resort of the scoundrel.
The East Timor experience seems to have engendered delusions of grandeur in those charged with our defence. We are not a major power in South-East Asia and our attempts to act like one will result in resentment and resistance. Australia is not, and should not aspire to be, the arbiter or enforcer within our region. Our experience in East Timor shows that what we do we can do well, but East Timor was an exception, hardly likely to be justified or sanctioned elsewhere in the region. There may be an argument for increased spending to update equipment, but tying this to the introduction of the GST is politics of the lowest kind.