Do you want woke, timid souls defending us or warriors?

Much as President Joe Biden is quite right in saying that there is no good reason for US troops to remain in Afghanistan, there is also no evidence to suggest that the country will not inevitably devolve back into a repressive Islamic state under the Taliban.

The Taliban has alway played a long game, one that began more than 1400 years ago, and the reality is that the Taliban will never allow any of the democratic institutions that tenuously exist there.

We in the West forget that 2021 is actually the Islamic year 1442. In the Western year 1442, there was slavery, repression, internecine war and rule by divine right. Sadly, when the Taliban takes back Afghanistan, there will be slavery, repression, internecine war and rule by divine right, and it will inevitably return to being a safe haven for factions determined to reimpose their values in whatever way necessary.

Perhaps the most interesting question to consider is whether China will find itself filling the void vacated by the US to ensure that its vision of the future isn’t compromised by those of a resurgent Taliban.

Michael G. Smith, Katoomba, NSW

It is easy to despair as to the state of the ADF and the negative impact of media coverage on the men and women who volunteer to serve in it on behalf of us all (“Colonel faces sack over SAS pub antics”, 15/4). Does the media want a Defence Force made up of woke, timid souls or warriors? Does it continually flinch at every reported violation of the alleged norms of society?

Service in the ADF is not a football team made up of immature individuals whose every transgression is excused by the media “because we want them on the park on Saturday”. The nation demands that the ADF is committed to, as Andrew Hastie said recently, its “core business of applying lethal violence in the defence of our value, sovereignty and interests”. In its application lethal violence is not pretty and is not for the faint hearted.

Kel Ryan, national president, Defence Force Welfare Association, Kingston, ACT

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has a problem. The judgment of his most senior officer, head of Defence General Angus Campbell, is becoming critically warped. Australia sends its fighting men into a dangerous, almost suicidal, theatre against the Taliban, whose dirty tactics have absolutely no limits, and expects all of said men unilaterally to behave, on and off duty, like angelic choirboys.

Peter M. Wargent, Mosman, NSW

Surely Defence is not seriously considering sacking a senior officer for simply letting off steam with his troops during a deployment to Afghanistan? Puerile behaviour is not (yet) a criminal offence and the behaviours cited are both low level and understandable given the intensity of the environment that our troops were (continuously) sent to operate in by our senior bureaucrats and politicians in Canberra. Admittedly, there does appear to be a real cultural sickness in Defence, but one suspects that it relates principally to the isolated, virtue-signalling chiefs who luxuriate in headquarters rather than with our front-line war fighters.

Geoff O’Brien, Eltham, Vic

So, a senior officer is to lose his job because he took part in some lewd conduct by some soldiers in an on-base bar in Afghanistan. Has it really come to this? Are we not prepared to cut our soldiers some slack and accept that, to let off steam in a tense environment, they may behave in a way that offends the sensibilities of we at home in our comfortable lounges?

Frank Pulsford, Aspley, Qld

The revelation that a senior officer appointed to reform special forces culture has allegedly committed lewd sex acts while on duty in Afghanistan provides a damning indictment on the level of absurdity to which this culture has descended (“‘Lewd crew’ star now to fix special forces culture”, 13/4).

But more damning is that the evidence provided for these allegations was found hidden at the residence of one of our most decorated war heroes, who is himself under investigation for war crimes. The monumental task the ADF faces in addressing these systemic failures will, however, carry far graver implications at the prospect of our involvement in any future war, particularly with China.

Reverend Vincent Zankin, (former ADF chaplain), Rivett, ACT