The next ‘unexpected’ war
As we uphold the Anzac Day tradition, we are reminded of the high price the young men and women of our grandparents’ generation paid (“their tomorrows for our todays”) to purchase the freedoms we, their grandchildren, today take for granted.
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There is one main reason why so many Australian and Allied young men, women and civilians died in World Wars 1 and 2.
There was an influential pacifist minority in Allied nations supportive of German and Japan.
They talked our leaders out of having a strong defensive readiness to respond to the well-publicised military build-up and territorial expansion of Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Failing to act on the many signs of pending military aggression, our leaders had to sacrifice the lives of far too many untrained young men, opposing well-trained German and Japanese soldiers, to give Allies a slim chance to defend our nations and families against enemy invasion, capture or conquest.
Before they could be stopped (with eternal thanks to the USA), many freedom-loving countries fell to those two ruthless aggressors, with millions of men, women and children brutally abused and murdered (countries this generation visits as tourists).
Today we know China and Russia are excessively well armed, far beyond any need of national defence, and aggressively expanding their territory.
The next “unexpected” war will be beyond our worst fears.
Like France’s President Macron, let us also reintroduce serious military training for all young people. This would show our determination to defend our homes, families, freedoms and our nation.
Let us expose and hold accountable those who oppose national military service, who want to repeat those avoidable great losses of young lives.
The next great conflict will be swift and destructive for under prepared nations like Australia, which dwell quietly without strong walls or defences.
Mike Johns, Riverwood
TAFE centre questioned
Thanks to Deputy Premier John Barilaro and his sidekick Andrew Constance for once again demonstrating their government's contempt for South Coast communities (BDN, 28/5).
While the Bega Valley Shire Residents and Ratepayers Association (BVSRRA) accepts there are those in our community who believe any development is good development, there are many others who question development for its own sake, in particular when it is promoted by political siding salesmen.
Mr Barilaro dishonestly claims that the “TAFE NSW Regional Connected Learning Centre" proposed for the old Bega Hospital site in Bega "has been designed to be adapted to suit the demands of the community".
How can that be Mr Bailaro when, after three years of often secret discussions and no community consultation, no-one has actually spelled-out what a "connected learning centre" is, let alone what it is intended to achieve, what value it will add to the South Coast community and how the community feels about it?
How is it Mr Bailaro that "specific details of the new-age campus are still being considered" when your buddy Andrew Constance committed significant funding for the project more than two years ago and a Development Application has already been submitted to council?
Having shelled-out $2million to create a serviced office facility in Merimbula, a grandly-named white elephant called the "Bega Valley Regional Learning Centre", residents and ratepayers can surely only wonder what kind of elephant the even more grandly named $5million "TAFE NSW Regional Connected Learning Centre" will actually turn-out to be.
John Richardson, Bega Valley Shire Residents and Ratepayers Association