Prepare for war

IN response to reader David Keyes, I suggest it is better to be prepared, because if war comes it will be too late to build an army and train soldiers (“Arms build-up not the answer,” Letters, July 8). It will be too late to acquire the military equipment Australia will need to defend itself. China’s aim is to militarise the South China Sea and island nations of the South Pacific.

If we allow that to happen, Australia will be isolated and it will be much harder for an ally to come to our defence, as we can expect America will. If Tasmania was vulnerable in 1942 when a Japanese submarine visited and flew a reconnaissance plane over Hobart, how vulnerable are we in 2020? I served in the US Army for 13½ years. I became an army officer and army helicopter pilot. I lived in communist China as an airline captain, flying Boeing jets for nearly five years. We find ourselves in a unique position to defend our democracy, Australia’s sovereignty and our way of life. The only way to defend the things we hold dear is to be prepared to fight for them and that costs money.

Robert Cassidy Bothwell