When Defence Minister Richard Marles announced on Thursday that distinguished service medals had been stripped from commanding officers who held senior roles during the war in Afghanistan, the first issue on many’s people minds was timing.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton took to radio to declare that his successor in the ministry had “abrogated responsibility … by letting this cloud hang for so long”. Dutton’s silence on whether he supported the move itself was telling, given that as defence minister he had countermanded the decision of armed forces chief Angus Campbell to strip unit honours from roughly 3000 soldiers who served in Afghanistan, as well as postponing the disbandment ceremony for 2 Squadron of the SAS Regiment.

Defence Minister Richard Marles this week stripped officers of medals.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

For others, including independent MP and former soldier Jacqui Lambie, that the announcement coincided with the tabling of the final report from the royal commission into veteran suicide was particularly insensitive. Martin Hamilton-Smith, the current head of the Australian SAS Association, has also made the connection to veteran suicide, and when it first emerged that medals might be stripped he insisted that such measures should only follow a completed judicial process, arguing we might all be “jumping at........

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