Thanks for writing 'Not Happy John!'. I've just finished reading it - it took me about 2 days, a record short time. While I have never been a fan of John Howard - I grew up in Ipswich during the Bjelke Petersen and Malcolm Fraser reigns and I doubt I will ever vote for a Conservative Government as a result of that - there were so many other things you have opened my eyes about.

Yes, I think our democracy may be in trouble, but I also think that on the whole Australians can see through the bullshit they are being fed - believing that us voters will be sufficiently distracted by the Olympics that we will ignore everything else for a fortnight seriously underestimates us and anyone who relies on this kind of distraction to get the better of us will be in for a shock. This is not to take away from your central point though -- we must get involved. Feeling disenfranchised and excluded is the easy option, and simply an example of learned helplessness and an abrogation of responsibility.

Voting is not simply a right - it's a responsibility, and thats why it is, and should be, compulsory.

I have to admit I'm loving watching the fallout from Children Overboard revisited - I'm an Army Officer by profession and one of the things which galled me the most back in 2001/2002 (apart from the way MY COUNTRY was treating refugees in the first place - which made me sick) was the way the ADF (in the form of the then CDF Chris Barrie and Departmental Secretary Alan Hawke - who have both moved on now) took the fall for the Governments' obvious lies and duplicity.

I note that one of the young sailors involved came out publicly last week and stated how angry the RAN and Army personnel on HMAS Adelaide at the time were at the way the incident was portrayed by the Government. Those young service personnel had been helping desperate people and resented becoming part of an extroadinarilly cynical election stunt. Her statements were entirely consistent with stories people who were there told me in early 2002.

Against this background I am sensing panic among the Government and their cheer squad. Two minor examples which amused me: I watched Max 'The Axe' Moore Wilton in action on the 7.30 Report on Thursday proving exactly why Mike Scrafton kept mum about certain things, then on 'Insiders' yesterday, leading Howard apologist Piers Ackermans' desperate attempts to muddy the waters and cast doubt on Scraftons' reliability. It was laughable, and borderline libelous.

So I'm hopeful that we may be about to have a change of Government - hopefully the next lot will be better, and not just different. I do wonder how history will assess the Howard years - I suspect lies, weasel words and hubris will be prominent, but the strongest legacy will doubtless be breathtaking political cynicism.

Long term the thing which worries me is the Tony Abbott factor. It seems likely that if Howard is defeated, Costello is unlikely to ever be PM and the Liberal leadership will pass to Abbott. This guy is smart, but he's also a religious zealot and seems unafraid to inflict his religious conviction on the rest of us - why do the religiously convicted so often seem to think they can legitimately do that? This is a worry - much that the humanistically inclined have fought for over the years may be at risk or lost. What is it they say about the price of freedom being eternal vigilance?

I'm not going to tell you who I am, but rest assured I am genuinely in the Army. It's not that I don;t trust you, but one of the results of the enormous politicisation of the organisation, one which I love passionately and care deeply about, is the reservation we now all have about being seen to be speaking out. Witness Mick Keelty - do you reckon that was lost on us? No way!

I still have a career which I'm very serious about, and which hopefully will outlive the current bunch. Apart from which, I'm speaking as a CITIZEN not as a Soldier, and I don't want to be misconstrued as speaking on the Company's behalf.