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For too many of Australia’s troops have “lost confidence” and feel “deeply betrayed” by our leaders, and “so they should,” according to Sky News host Catherine McGregor.

“To me – as a veteran – I felt a strange sense of emptiness at the announcement that our longest war was finally drawing to a close,” Ms McGregor said.

“An obviously emotional Prime Minister read the names of the 41 Australian soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan. I do not doubt his sincerity, but the time for tears has come and gone – actions speak louder than words”.

“If the Government really has our backs – as we are being assured – then drop all the prosecutions for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan and pardon former military lawyer David McBride.”

Ms McGregor said it is “one thing to withdraw from Afghanistan” but “another thing entirely to bring our troops home if it doesn’t really feel like home anymore”.

“I have repeatedly called for our complete withdrawal on this network in recent years … it was obvious to me while I was a serving officer of the Australian Army – as far back as 2007, that our strategy in Afghanistan was deeply and fatally flawed,” she said.

Ms McGregor said our “political class from both sides of politics” had only “one strategic objective in Afghanistan”: to plant our flag in the sand and be seen as “reliable allies to the United States”.

“But the use of the SASR to conduct conventional infantry missions demoralised our infantry and physically and mentally exhausted our Special Forces,” she said.

“The role of the SAS Regiment had always been covert insertion and surveillance and reconnaissance in small five man patrols … the effect on these men – who were deployed multiple times - over time was to numb their moral sensibilities and to psychologically scar them, and it inculcated a body count measure of success that was endorsed at the very highest levels”.

“Those who sent those men to kill every designated individual on the so-called Joint Prioritised Effects List are now demanding exclusive moral culpability for the absence of any coherent strategy upon a handful of junior soldiers from one regiment.”

Ms McGregor said this is “absolutely sickening” and the quiet Australians are “enraged by it”.

“This week I felt utter disgust at the theatrical posturing of a millionaire CEO resplendent in white crying about being sacked over Cartier watches. I’ll give you the big tip: the Taliban didn’t need watches, because they had time on their side,” she said.

“Welcome to Australia in 2021. A nation that is now so lacking moral ballast that we believe Christine Holgate and Magda Szubanski are ‘brave’ while we vilify men who have faced a deadly enemy in extreme conditions – toxic masculinity apparently”.

“To the families who lost sons, brothers or husbands – and to every fellow veteran I want to pay sincere and genuine respect.”