It’s Not Australia’s Soldiers Who Need to Rebuild Trust

Australian Defence Force brass seem to think that the ADF needs to “redeem itself” and “restore trust”.

But it’s not the ordinary service men and women who’ve lost the trust and esteem of the Australian public – not to mention the ranks. Australians trust and respect their troops.

It’s the desk jockeys, brass and politicians that Australians distrust – despise, even.

Defence has set out a four-year plan to reform the culture of the ADF, weed out wrongdoers and strip medals from unworthy recipients, in its long-awaited response to the Brereton war crimes inquiry.

The public release of the Brereton report at the end of last year generated widespread disgust and outrage in Australia. But who you were outraged and disgusted with seemed very much to depend on who you are.

Politicians – especially the green-left – and journalists fell over themselves to rush to condemn Australia’s troops: none more so than Australia’s most highly decorated serving soldier, VC-winner Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith. Smith is currently suing several journalists and the Nine Entertainment group to clear his name of war crime allegations.

Australia’s enemies, especially China, were likewise gleeful at being handed a propaganda free kick by the Morrison government.

But ordinary Australians and rank-and-file service personnel are outraged and disgusted that a report consisting solely of allegations, many of them little more than hearsay, was made public without a single allegation being tested. Many were furious that thousands of service personnel were to be summarily stripped of decorations.

Australians’ ire is directed, not just at brass who’ve never fired a shot in anger on their climb up the ladder, but at politicians who put expediency and electoral PR ahead of the honour of our troops.

Especially when these desk jockeys and “Rear Echelon Motherfuckers” are protecting their careers by using the ranks as political human shields.

Released eight months after the Brereton report alleged 25 Australian soldiers were involved in the murder of 39 Afghans, it sets out a series of steps to address past failings and prevent future misconduct.

It commits Defence to making “initial determinations” by the end of 2021 on disciplinary and administrative action against individuals, including reviews on whether to strip their honours and awards.

Which is a tacit admission that, so far, our troops have been denied procedural fairness. They’ve had their reputations hung in the wind before they’ve even been given the semblance of a fair trial.

In the forward to the document, Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell and Defence secretary Greg Moriarty say they ­accept responsibility for the failings in systems, culture and ­accountability exposed by the Brereton report, and will work to restore the ADF’s reputation by undertaking “deep and enduring reform”.

If they really accept responsibility, then they should do what any real commander would do: resign in disgrace.

But today’s brass are not cut from the same cloth as the ancient Romans. Like true politicians, they make sure that they are the last to fall on the sword.

Military lawyer and former army officer Glenn Kolomeitz, who is completing doctoral ­research into command responsibility for war crimes, said the ­Defence response was “a remarkable piece of spin” demonstrating its inability to come to terms with its own organisational failures.

“This document would have we ignorant civilians believe that ­accountability only applies to more junior commanders and the senior leadership is somehow ­remote from Defence,” he said[…]

But military sociologist Samantha Crompvoets, who helped uncover allegations of war crimes while completing a study on special forces culture, said the plan set out a clear reform path “[…]This isn’t some woke agenda.”

Oh, absolutely it is. Crompvoets is, in her own words, a “feminist civilian woman [who’s] never been to war”. “Sociologist”, by the way, almost certainly translates as “leftist”, if not literal Marxist (Sociology is the most Marxist-heavy discipline in academia, with 1 in 4 identifying as such; 96% of sociologists characterise themselves as left-wing).

What a “military sociologist” actually is, is anyone’s guess.

Whereas former Defence Minister Linda Reynolds blithered about being “sickened” by the Brereton report, current minister Peter Dutton is at least doing something to stand up for the ranks.

The reform plan follows ­Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s move in April to overturn General Campbell’s decision to strip meritorious unit citations from more than 3000 special forces soldiers as a “collective punishment” for the alleged crimes uncovered by the Brereton inquiry. Mr Dutton said Afghanistan veterans should wear the citations with pride, saying “99 per cent of our ADF personnel serve, and have served, our country with distinction”.

The Australian

Now Dutton just needs to tell Defence to flush this latest career-saving report from the top brass down the careerist sewer it came from.

“Flush straight, you bastards”, as Breaker Morant might have said.

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