While China’s tweeting of a fake image of an Australian soldier killing a child is grabbing headlines – for all the wrong reasons – around the world, it scarcely exceeds the bastardy being meted out to Australia’s soldiers by military brass at home.
The Brereton Report, which found evidence of war crimes committed by a handful of Special Operations soldiers in Afghanistan nearly a decade ago, has generated shockwaves at home. Not least at the summary punishment meted out to thousands of innocent soldiers. The denial of even a semblance of due process to so many members of the Australian Defence Forces has generated a swift public backlash and recalled memories of the infamous court-martial of Harry “Breaker” Morant.
The recommendation by Inspector-General Paul Brereton that the Meritorious Unit Citation be stripped from more than 3000 soldiers who served with the Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2013 has sparked a swift community backlash. And for good reason.
The recommendation, accepted by Chief of Defence General Angus Campbell, is an affront to basic fairness. The notion that thousands of soldiers on different rotations into Afghanistan should bear collective responsibility for the alleged evil actions of 19 soldiers is preposterous. It taints and punishes decent soldiers who were not part of the atrocious findings in the Brereton report.
More than 50,000 Australians who have signed a petition opposing Campbell’s decision may not be well versed in the finer points of the rule of the law. But as citizens they understand that the judge and the general have undermined values that Australian soldiers have fought for: the right to be free from arbitrary and capricious decisions.
It must first be borne in mind that the Brereton Report’s findings are allegations only. Not one of the accused soldiers has been brought before a court-martial.
More importantly, the collective punishment of 3,000 soldiers for the alleged actions of less than 20 – just 0.07% of the 26,000 ADF personnel who served in Afghanistan – is an obvious affront to fairness.
When the Brereton report was handed down, former prime minister John Howard did what every good leader in a democracy should do. Howard expressed his gratitude for soldiers who fought in a long and difficult war. He voiced distress about the findings of credible information about the allegedly unlawful killings of 39 Afghanis, and reminded Australians that these alleged crimes concern a small group of special forces personnel.
Importantly, Howard said: “Due process must be followed. If charges are laid against individuals, they must be handled in accordance with Australia’s criminal justice system. Any personnel charged should enjoy the presumption of innocence.”
Sadly, the highest echelons of the military appear deaf to these pleas. The Chief of Defence’s swift reaction to strip soldiers of the MUC was not just wrong, it jarred with what appears to be a much slower response by the military chief to hold senior commanders accountable for allowing, or turning a blind eye to, the barbarities set out in the report.
The alleged barbarties highlight, yet again, the inherent risk of asymmetric warfare. One side is free to act without even the slightest regards for such rules as the Geneva Conventions – have those criticising the ADF, especially the tyrants of Beijing, voiced even the slightest concern over the actions of the Taliban? – while the other is held to the minutest scrutiny.
Not least by its own. The ABC has pursued a vendetta against the ADF, especially its most decorated soldier, that is hardly less than the hysterical venom with which it relentlessly smeared Cardinal George Pell.
Witness the obsession of some at the ABC who appear troubled that Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes has agreed to fund, through a loan, the legal defence of former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith. The distinguished soldier has launched a defamation case against The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald over a series of articles he says wrongly characterised him as a war criminal. Roberts-Smith has put his service medals up as collateral for the loan. If he can’t repay the loan, he has agreed that Stokes, who is chairman of the Australian War Memorial, can donate the medals to the AWM.
On their programs last week, Fran Kelly and Hamish Macdonald seemed to be disturbed by this arrangement.
Of course, they were. As left-wing journalists are wont, they imagine themselves as the ruling elite, entitled to hand down summary judgement. Whether it be ruining the life of a senior clergyman with false accusations of paedophilia, or of a male celebrity with spurious “#MeToo” smears, or the most highly decorated serving member of the Australian Defence Force.
War crimes – if proven – are corrosive enough of trust in our most revered institutions. Taxpayer-funded witch-hunts are even worse.
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