July 9, 2026 — 8:00pmTrouble in the sky.Matt GoldingTo submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.It’s deja vu all over again for US. It was the unwinnable Vietnam War in 1960s, Afghanistan’s 20-year war started in 2001 and now there is what looks like another “forever war” in Iran. Pete Seeger’s song Where have all the Flowers Gone? posed the question the Trump administration could well ponder, “When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?“Kevin Burke, SandringhamTrump is fighting the good fight with IranDespite his manifest faults, Donald Trump is justified in continuing to hold the Islamic Revolutionary Corps in Iran to account. As the NATO Secretary-General states, ″⁣When you have a ceasefire and Iran is basically violating the ceasefire, I think it is totally crucial that the US forcefully react″⁣. In removing more than 60 small boats of the Corps, the US is striking at Iran’s blackmail strategy in relation to the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s theocratic leadership must not now be allowed to rebuild its hold on a nation where its people, especially the youthful demographic, continue to be tortured physically and psychologically. Notwithstanding the claims of its delusional propagandists, Iran, without a viable navy and airforce and reeling from a broken economy, should now be perceived as a failing state. Washington should not relent, and the news that it has withdrawn a key concession that had allowed Iran to sell oil on international markets should be welcomed. This is a time when appeasement ploys should be discarded. For once, the US President can be on the right side of history. His military is fighting a ″⁣just war″⁣ in moral terms; and the people of the Middle East within and beyond Iran stand to benefit.Jon McMillan, MorningtonWaiting for our independence dayChina tests a missile and we panic. The US tests one and we cheer them on. While China is making overtures about Taiwan and taking it over, look at what the US has done in the past couple of years – led a coup in Venezuela, unseating a president and plundering the oil reserves, blockaded Cuba and stopped it getting vital oil supplies, attacked Iran and disrupted the global economy. It cheered on Israel and its genocidal-like activities in the Gaza Strip and its invasion of southern Lebanon. Donald Trump indicated he wanted control of Greenland. He blocked much-needed arms supplies to assist Ukraine against Russia. The US put tariffs on us. We have got a dud deal with secondhand and new subs that we may never see. Who do we mistrust more? The US or China? If only we were an independent nation.Greg Tuck, WarragulThe two sides to the American relationshipLike columnist Kate Allman (Comment, 9/7), I have spent considerable time in the US, and have many good memories and close friends. However the policies of the current Administration mean that I might be forbidden entry, primarily because of my writings about US politics and Israel. It would have been a stronger article had Allman reflected on the reasons many of us now, reluctantly, are not planning a visit.Dennis Altman, Clifton HillIn these times, there are other places to goI have visited the United States several times and fully agree with Kate Allman about its breathtaking beauty. And I appreciate the friendliness of many Americans, a few of whom have become my lifelong friends. However, individuals such as myself have limited ways of opposing attacks on human and civil rights, and serious threats to democracy in other countries. Boycotting is one of the available strategies. Visitors will gladly travel to the US when they can once more respect and trust its president and government. For the time being, many potential tourists, including myself, will stay well away and enjoy Australia and Europe, especially Spain.Mirna Cicioni, Brunswick EastIn search of the makers of peaceBlessed are the peacemakers, but where are they?Malcolm McDonald, BurwoodTHE FORUMPothole factorsIt isn’t just government maintenance shortfalls that cause plagues of potholes on country roads. (″⁣Potholes not just a bump in the road″⁣, 9/7). It is two entirely different suites of policies.First, the tax structures that make it cheaper and easier to run SUVs as family cars, which result in much weightier cars in normal traffic conditions. Then, we begin paying the price for our governments’ lacklustre efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions – heatwaves, floods and storms, all affecting road surface integrity.We now have a scenario where country people are coping with potholed roads by buying even bigger and heavier utes, which can only make a bad situation worse.Colin Mockett, GeelongCircle the dangerHaving just returned from a trip to the Western Districts I can confirm the dreadful state of our highways and smaller roads. At the very least circle them with reflective paint so that we have a chance to avoid them in this ″⁣whack a mole″⁣ driving.Denise Stevens, St KildaStay alertThe failure to keep both rural and suburban roads free of dangerous potholes has become a longstanding problem across Victoria. Poor road conditions have been normalised, despite the safety risks they create. While a speed limit sign may state 100 km/h, that is the maximum permitted speed, not the speed you must travel. If road conditions do not safely support that speed, slow down. Adjusting your speed to suit the conditions will help you and your vehicle reach your destination safely.Paul Caine, Glen HuntlyIdea has weightGiven the increase in the number of larger vehicles being used by people, and the increasing damage to roads in this state, would it not make sense to have the weight of a vehicle linked to the cost of the registration of such vehicles?Jenny Camp, Moonee PondsRail is the answerColumnist Chip Le Grand is correct in his appraisal of rural roads. As well as carrying out more maintenance on these roads, the government needs to pay more attention to removing heavy vehicles off roads by getting more freight on rail and to fast-track the gauge standardisation of broad gauge lines. Work has started on rebuilding the standard gauge Ararat to Portland line but much more across the state is required.Rod Watson, East BrightonBeyond the paleSenator Sarah Henderson, I realise that the Liberals are on life support, but dialling triple zero during the Telstra fail is beyond the pale — especially when others have more genuine needs.Jenny Bone, Surrey HillsCheck the boomAustralia should stop pretending the data-centre boom is a harmless tech trend (“Green energy giants say data centre boom a win for nation”, 9/7). Last year, data centres alone drove half of the nation’s growth in electricity demand. Unless these hyperscale, AI-driven warehouses build more renewable generation and storage than they consume, they don’t power innovation but rather siphon off clean energy, strain the grid and increase climate pollution.The Climate Council warns that data centres could push wholesale energy prices up by 23 per cent in Victoria by 2035. A moratorium on new developments until the Allan and Albanese governments impose real, enforceable standards is both sensible and necessary.Letting data centres expand unchecked is not progress — it’s surrender.Sarah Brennan, HawthornThe passing signsI see Pam the Bird from the train when I visit the CBD. Also I see the Free West Papua on the silos in Sunshine where I grew up. On my way to my first job as an office junior at The Age in 1973 I always enjoyed seeing the Flood Motors vehicle sign in West Footscray.The Flood Motors sign is still there. Free West Papua is still relevant.Billboards generally lack imagination and good design and are detrimental to enjoyable visual experience.Gary Price, CastlemaineCreative workLike it or loathe it, graffiti is more creative, more visually stimulating, funnier, cheaper, less intrusive and less ruinous to the planet than the obnoxious commercial advertising in our faces day and night throughout every urban centre in the country.Paul Bucci, Geelong WestIt’s just scribbleA huge piece of scribble emblazoned on top of a pylon that can be seen from kilometres away is not street art.The Bolte Bridge is public property, paid for by taxpayers, and is not a canvas for vandals.By all means allow street art in the dirty laneways of inner Melbourne, where aficionados can marvel at wannabe Banksys to their heart’s content. The perpetrator of Pam the Bird is nothing more than a graffiti vandal and should be treated as such by the law.Greg Hardy, Upper Ferntree GullyTest caseIt’s interesting to note the fine distinction some individuals draw between “art” and “tagging”.Perhaps the test should be: “would you allow your own home to be daubed with art or individual decoration without your consent?“Peter Russo, West BrunswickFor the public goodSuch an accurate observation from your correspondent in support of public art (Letters, 8/7). It’s good to hear from a new generation with the imagination to appreciate the potential value of the contribution that public artwork offers to the community.Jenifer Nicholls, WindsorSimply vandalismSurely the continuous repetition of the same image, eg: Pam the Bird or tagging, cannot be referred to as creative artwork. I’ll reckon there will be no Pam the Bird on a grandmother’s front fence, or tags on other so-called graffiti artists’ parents’ front fences. It is simply vandalism to alter the appearance of property that does not belong to you.Peter O’Brien, NewportSocial rankingsYour correspondent wrote (Letters, 8/7) ″⁣it was certainly dire for women in prior centuries as ... daughters had to marry to avoid homelessness. Otherwise they faced gruelling work in workhouses or being taken in by charities or family″⁣.The fate of unmarried women in England in the 19th century would have been very different for each social class. For the wealthy and the middle class, ″⁣spinsters″⁣ would almost never have faced homelessness but would have found comfortable accommodation with a near or distant family.Working class women would inevitably have been employed as servants or worked in factories or shops and would have lived in some form of lodging.It would have been the poor who would have had no option but to turn to workhouses, rely on charities or be forced to turn to prostitution.David Fry, WindsorScore this as a winYour correspondent (Letters, 9/7) remarks on the fabulous excitement, compared to AFL, experienced by a soccer crowd when a goal is scored with everyone jumping up and down in unison given the rarity of these moments in a 90-minute game; and who can deny that in the context of a World Cup this is a fabulous thing?But the main reason this looks so good is that team’s supporters are generally partitioned off from each other to ensure that they do not tear each other apart. In AFL, we sit with opposition supporters and with such frequent scoring no one has either the time or inclination to set off a flare.Julian Guy, Mt ElizaRein in abusersRe the article ″⁣Europeans declare war on sick leave″⁣ (9/7), as a retired intensive care unit manager I used to tell my staff not to come to work while feeling unwell. Most of the time illnesses are viral and infective, which can easily be transmitted. Sick leave is expensive as it has to pay the the worker who takes the leave but also the replacement worker who often gets a higher rate of pay. There will always be some who abuse the system. It is these people who need to be reined in, not those who are genuinely ill.Maria Liew, WoodendFragile systemsThe frequent outages of crucial communication and management systems as well as data hacking events highlight the dangers of our ever-increasing reliance on these systems.There does not seem to be much in the way of backup provisions, so that when a system goes down, we are left high and dry.The adoption of these systems also leads to the loss of workers’ abilities to do the work of the systems manually, leaving us without alternatives.The obvious fragility of modern computer technology and our dependence on it has to be regarded as a potentially dangerous weakness in our ability to function without it in emergencies.An enemy would only have to knock out a few key elements and our society would grind to a halt.Michael Meszaros, AlphingtonThe Trump courseDonald Trump should run a TAFE course on Diplomacy 101 for aspiring diplomats.Sandy Jeffs, Christmas HillsAND ANOTHER THINGGraffitiI love Pam the Bird. A beautiful and much-needed piece of whimsy. Leave her there and save the $70,000.Wendy Batros, TemplestoweIt would have been more appropriate if the graffiti on the Bolte Bridge had been a pair of big ears.Robin Jensen, CastlemaineNick Reece is definitely out of touch when he thinks Pam the Bird isn’t art and is an eyesore. Let the cool kids express their creativity even if it’s messy and not always polite. Beauty and art is in the eye of the beholder, it’s subjective.Sally Walcock, ToorakRegarding Pam The Bird, the phrase “it might have been funny the first time” springs to mind.Ross Bardin, WilliamstownIt is surely irrelevant whether billboards, big birds, and graffiti are art forms or not. What is publicly important is that they do not dominate the landscape, instead relegated to places where they can be enjoyed in private.Peter Drum, CoburgFurthermoreTelstra outage puts V/Line trains out of action. Why doesn’t V/Line have some sort of back-up plan for this? It would help.Doug Springall, YarragonIf they called the deplorable condition of Victorian country roads a ″⁣major event″⁣, it would get more attention from the state government.David Cayzer, Clifton HillPerhaps Australia should do its own missile test close to Chinese waters. I wonder what China’s response would be?Garry Meller, BentleighDoes anyone not see the irony of the prime minister lauding a deal to export uranium to India which will generate nuclear power and its banning on its use in Australia.Martin Newington, AspendaleIs it time to give AI a new name? Automated Information surely gives a better description than the word artificial intelligence, which conjures up outer space vibes and deep suspicion.Vivienne Whitehead, PaynesvilleFrom our partners