What gets better with age are the decades of my life without the force of war being a primary occupation.

What has been handy for me during my lifetime – possibly Mobi good luck than anything else – is the fact that I have not been required to go to war and fight for AUSTRALIA.

The more I think about it, the more I feel that has to do with luck.

On many occasions during my lifetime I have been aware of war as it is waged in many places around the world. Possibly never more so than in 2024!

I was born just after the Second World War. I was lucky enough not to have my name pulled out of the birthday barrel requiring me to fight in the Vietnam War – a conflict that destroyed so many Australians physically and mentally.

I would hope the same for my children and grandchildren, that they would share my luck of living life without having the conflict of war settle itself upon me.

But yet I wonder in my old age whether or not I may yet see conflict that impacts Australia and our region.

The world is bristling and I think without putting a point on it, that a third world war is perilously close.

Much, much closer than we think!