The fall issue of the Australian Army Journal carries two heartfelt and provocative articles by distinguished Army officers decrying the diminished role of the Australian infantry in war fighting. Their point is that offensive Australian operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan are now mostly carried out by Special Forces, with the infantry relegated to force protection and support. Which obviously pisses them off.
Both articles are worth reading to understand a typical inter-service debate, but they hardly qualify for banner headlines like “Australian soldiers ‘ashamed’ at lack of action in Iraq and Afghanistan” (The Times) or “Australian troops ‘scorned’ for low-risk missions: officer” (AFP), trawled from single sentences and shamelessly ripped out of context.
