Sky News host Chris Smith says Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell or Chief of Army Rick Burr have betrayed the trust and confidence of every soldier in the military by the way they’ve responded to the findings of the Brereton Report.

“They lost the trust and confidence of every soldier in the military because of the way they piled on those 3,000 awarded soldiers when they said after the Brereton Report, we will remove those citations,” he said.

“It’s a betrayal, because of their sacrifice. We’re talking about a handful of people, possibly, who have committed war crimes.

“Three-thousand men and women didn’t commit war crimes. I think they’ve lost the force.”

Sky News host Peter Gleeson said he thought Lieutenant-General Burr threw Australian soldiers under the bus by “lumping them into the same cesspool of denigration”, saying Mr Burr showed a lack of leadership and judgement and should resign.