Defamation 101 - don't sue unless you are so rich you don't give a rat's arse about the outcome and are simply trying to intimidate and / or fuck with anyoe brave and / or stupid enough to cross you. And big Ben, that's not you, even with Kerry bank-rolling you.
There are some silver linings here: (1) the relatives of those who were murdered will receive a small sliver of satisfaction seeing the killer made a pariah amongst his own people (2) a large number of SAS personnel testified against and refused to lie to protect one of their own despite significant pressure to do so - more power to them (3) a murderous psychopath has been shown for what he is and is now disgraced (4) it shows that our legal system (sometimes) allows the media to speak truth to power.
This matter has a long way to run, but like the PWC saga, karma is a-coming for a whole lot of people who richly deserve it.
Hope so. But aren't these the people (and I'm not talking about the soldiers) who get away with murder as a matter of course?
BRS thought it was all about him, but it looks like he was really part of some retro-engineered Aussie macho myth . He was living in a Truman land, operated by the big swinging dicks who sucked everyone in via a claque of media toadies.
This was an interesting report from 2018, might be pay-walled for some or many.
In recent years there's been a growing "war-porn" industry in Australia. Instead of seeing war for what it is - a tragedy, a scourge on humanity and the destoyer of worlds - the war-porn industry glorifies war and indulges in shallow jingoism. My grandfather fought in Borneo, forward positions, and never wanted to talk about it. No normal person takes pleasure in killing other people, or remembering such things. But soldiering can be a noble profession. I have an elderly Italian friend who to this day talks reverently of the Indian soldiers maching through her town and handing out sweets to the children. A small act of kindness in war, remembered for a life time.
I've read (in a column by Laura Tingle, I think) that Kerry Stokes described his bankrolling of the suit as a "loan" from his private investment company for which BRS's collateral was his Victoria Cross...
Lets us not forget this should also lead to the dropping of charges against the Australian whistle blower David William McBride who leaked documents about Australian Special Air Service involvement in Afghanistan to ABC reporters. (never should have gone ahead with it at all IMHO)
Says a lot about our government that the first person to be charged in relation to this was the whistleblower. And I don't mean this in a partisan way, yes he was charged under the Libs, but Labor are just as bad with whistleblowers.
It's telling that while he was charged under the Libs, Labor have refused to drop the charges and make this go away, despite all their performative theatre about accountability.
At least the Libs were open and honest about being utter bastards; Labor try to hide their bastardry behind their "values" and not being bastards like the Libs, like it makes any difference to the poor bugger who did the right thing and blew the whistle.
I'm not sure if it was first recommended to me over at the Burger, but I strongly recommend everyone read "Anzac's Long Shadow" by James Brown. It's nearly 10 years old now and talks about how our obsession with the Anzac legend stops us from looking critically at our defence forces which ultimately leads to stuff like this.
I've been seeing a bit of this with my Facebook feed had a couple of people regularly posting "I stand with BRS" stuff, even when they would have no idea if he's guilty or not.
According to Amazon you may have already read it: "‘The best book yet written, not just on Australia's Afghan war, but on war itself and the creator/destroyer myth of Anzac.’ —John Birmingham"
Yeah the Anzac legend seems to be the Swiss knife of the media and political class. It's good for recruiting people into the defence force/war, shutting down criticism of anything about war, refugees in detention, foreign policy, racism, spending a bomb on some cultural institutions and not others, as well as being super nifty for attacking brown people and non-Anglos, young people, people on welfare, the arts, and whipping up nationalism at short notice.
I drive past the War Memorial in Canberra several times a week. It shits me to tears how much money they are spending on extending it while my old man who's a Vietnam vet with a bunch of health issues has to spend half his life arguing with Veteran's Affairs.
Still utterly amazing that he brought this case. Let this be a lesson to all: better to be thought a war criminal, murderer and bully, than to bring a defo case and remove all doubt.
Also definitely a finalist in the "fuck around and found out" awards of 2023
Am I the only one sceptical that meaningful change and action will occur in the wake of this case? Will Roberts-Smith be charged or have his conduct (and medals) reviewed? Will whistleblowers still under prosecution be protected?
I really wish I could be more optimistic but I very much suspect this will all be swept back under the carpet.
I wonder what the market value of the VC of a war criminal and murderer is these days? Totes awkward for Stokes, who appears so eager to toss good money after bad he's now propping up Bruce Lehrman. Does make you wonder who it was that was bankrolling Christian Porter's defence fund too
This is a sad and f'd up moment when a winner of the VC is shown to have feet of clay. It casts a pall over those who took the King's Shilling and did the thing honorably and well. This was a clear failure of leadership all the way up the chain of command. One low-level leader, NCO or commissioned, could have stopped all of this in its tracks at an early stage. Now, look at what's happened. An E4 (!) who wasn't placed in check has created this nightmare for the Australian Army. Going forward, this incident should be a hot topic in NCO and officer leader professional leadership courses. You don't want this sort of thing to happen while you're in charge, ever.
All of this! While BRS should be held criminally responsible for his conduct, responsibility for his conduct goes all the way to the top. He's not a rogue element or a bad apple or whatever soothing bollocks they'll dream up to other him and keep their hands clean. Everyone in the chain of command is responsible, because they either knew about it and sanctioned it with their silence, or they were ignorant and therefore incompetent and should not have been in leadership positions. Either way it's catastrophic for Army leadership.
Just so we know, somewhere in the reporting about ex-Constable Zachary Rolfe (remember him, he was found "not guilty" of murdering Kumanjyai Walker) it was noted that Roberts-Smith is a friend of Rolfe's parents and Zachary cited him as a mentor....
Defamation 101 - don't sue unless you are so rich you don't give a rat's arse about the outcome and are simply trying to intimidate and / or fuck with anyoe brave and / or stupid enough to cross you. And big Ben, that's not you, even with Kerry bank-rolling you.
There are some silver linings here: (1) the relatives of those who were murdered will receive a small sliver of satisfaction seeing the killer made a pariah amongst his own people (2) a large number of SAS personnel testified against and refused to lie to protect one of their own despite significant pressure to do so - more power to them (3) a murderous psychopath has been shown for what he is and is now disgraced (4) it shows that our legal system (sometimes) allows the media to speak truth to power.
This matter has a long way to run, but like the PWC saga, karma is a-coming for a whole lot of people who richly deserve it.
Yeah, all good points.
Hope so. But aren't these the people (and I'm not talking about the soldiers) who get away with murder as a matter of course?
BRS thought it was all about him, but it looks like he was really part of some retro-engineered Aussie macho myth . He was living in a Truman land, operated by the big swinging dicks who sucked everyone in via a claque of media toadies.
This was an interesting report from 2018, might be pay-walled for some or many.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/historians-call-out-war-memorial-director-over-ben-roberts-smith-defence-20180817-p4zy4i.html
In recent years there's been a growing "war-porn" industry in Australia. Instead of seeing war for what it is - a tragedy, a scourge on humanity and the destoyer of worlds - the war-porn industry glorifies war and indulges in shallow jingoism. My grandfather fought in Borneo, forward positions, and never wanted to talk about it. No normal person takes pleasure in killing other people, or remembering such things. But soldiering can be a noble profession. I have an elderly Italian friend who to this day talks reverently of the Indian soldiers maching through her town and handing out sweets to the children. A small act of kindness in war, remembered for a life time.
I've read (in a column by Laura Tingle, I think) that Kerry Stokes described his bankrolling of the suit as a "loan" from his private investment company for which BRS's collateral was his Victoria Cross...
Lets us not forget this should also lead to the dropping of charges against the Australian whistle blower David William McBride who leaked documents about Australian Special Air Service involvement in Afghanistan to ABC reporters. (never should have gone ahead with it at all IMHO)
Says a lot about our government that the first person to be charged in relation to this was the whistleblower. And I don't mean this in a partisan way, yes he was charged under the Libs, but Labor are just as bad with whistleblowers.
It's telling that while he was charged under the Libs, Labor have refused to drop the charges and make this go away, despite all their performative theatre about accountability.
At least the Libs were open and honest about being utter bastards; Labor try to hide their bastardry behind their "values" and not being bastards like the Libs, like it makes any difference to the poor bugger who did the right thing and blew the whistle.
Yeah the ALP have been ...dissapointing on a number of issues that they were seemingly red hot on before the election.
I'm not sure if it was first recommended to me over at the Burger, but I strongly recommend everyone read "Anzac's Long Shadow" by James Brown. It's nearly 10 years old now and talks about how our obsession with the Anzac legend stops us from looking critically at our defence forces which ultimately leads to stuff like this.
I've been seeing a bit of this with my Facebook feed had a couple of people regularly posting "I stand with BRS" stuff, even when they would have no idea if he's guilty or not.
I vaguely known James. I should totally read that book.
According to Amazon you may have already read it: "‘The best book yet written, not just on Australia's Afghan war, but on war itself and the creator/destroyer myth of Anzac.’ —John Birmingham"
Yeah the Anzac legend seems to be the Swiss knife of the media and political class. It's good for recruiting people into the defence force/war, shutting down criticism of anything about war, refugees in detention, foreign policy, racism, spending a bomb on some cultural institutions and not others, as well as being super nifty for attacking brown people and non-Anglos, young people, people on welfare, the arts, and whipping up nationalism at short notice.
Couldn't agree more.
I drive past the War Memorial in Canberra several times a week. It shits me to tears how much money they are spending on extending it while my old man who's a Vietnam vet with a bunch of health issues has to spend half his life arguing with Veteran's Affairs.
Spot on. That Canberra war memorial has become a shrine for war porn. That $500m should be spent on the veterans.
Still utterly amazing that he brought this case. Let this be a lesson to all: better to be thought a war criminal, murderer and bully, than to bring a defo case and remove all doubt.
Also definitely a finalist in the "fuck around and found out" awards of 2023
I wish I'd thought of that first par.
My gift to you, if you want to borrow it for when you post this on the socials 😂
Am I the only one sceptical that meaningful change and action will occur in the wake of this case? Will Roberts-Smith be charged or have his conduct (and medals) reviewed? Will whistleblowers still under prosecution be protected?
I really wish I could be more optimistic but I very much suspect this will all be swept back under the carpet.
It's ripe for culture war shenanigans, so given Albo's natural, er, discretion, prolly nothing gonna happen.
Nice one JB. Need me some sweet PWC ft. BRS. Didn't he put up his VC as collateral for Stokes? Awkward indeedy.
I wonder what the market value of the VC of a war criminal and murderer is these days? Totes awkward for Stokes, who appears so eager to toss good money after bad he's now propping up Bruce Lehrman. Does make you wonder who it was that was bankrolling Christian Porter's defence fund too
Yes, the Billionaire's indulgence. It's worth as much as a NFT VC. I'll right-click Save As "soon to be returned don't pass go, do not collect $200"
This is a sad and f'd up moment when a winner of the VC is shown to have feet of clay. It casts a pall over those who took the King's Shilling and did the thing honorably and well. This was a clear failure of leadership all the way up the chain of command. One low-level leader, NCO or commissioned, could have stopped all of this in its tracks at an early stage. Now, look at what's happened. An E4 (!) who wasn't placed in check has created this nightmare for the Australian Army. Going forward, this incident should be a hot topic in NCO and officer leader professional leadership courses. You don't want this sort of thing to happen while you're in charge, ever.
All of this! While BRS should be held criminally responsible for his conduct, responsibility for his conduct goes all the way to the top. He's not a rogue element or a bad apple or whatever soothing bollocks they'll dream up to other him and keep their hands clean. Everyone in the chain of command is responsible, because they either knew about it and sanctioned it with their silence, or they were ignorant and therefore incompetent and should not have been in leadership positions. Either way it's catastrophic for Army leadership.
I find it hard to believe that his small-unit leadership was incompetent or unaware. Therefore...
Yep. The bit no one wants to say out loud, because then they’d have to do something about it, and the whole ANZAC house of cards will crumble 😬
Just so we know, somewhere in the reporting about ex-Constable Zachary Rolfe (remember him, he was found "not guilty" of murdering Kumanjyai Walker) it was noted that Roberts-Smith is a friend of Rolfe's parents and Zachary cited him as a mentor....
BRS's dad is a retired Supreme Court judge with a military legal background and Zachary Rolfe BM has an influential lawyer for a mum.
Da fuq?? 😲
Chips Rafferty would be appalled at the damage done to the ANZAC myth.