The Victoria Cross recipient lost a landmark defamation case against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and TheCanberra Timeson Thursday, with a judge finding he had committed war crimes and was a murderer. It can now also be revealed that the Australian Federal Police has submitted a new brief of evidence to Commonwealth prosecutors over allegations Roberts-Smith intimidated witnesses at that trial.
It feels like the SMH/the Age have had to sit on so much stuff that now they’ve been vindicated the floodgates are going to open…
I generally loathe going after soldiers over what happened in battles.
War is horrible, and soldiers are often choosing between options that are ‘shit’ and ‘less shit’. Especially against an enemy like the Taliban. It’s just too easy to sit here all entitled in our safe homes and criticise.
But enough has come out in this trial to show that at a minimum, BRS is not exactly a great guy. Time will tell what other info starts to emerge.
Besanko has gone painstakingly through every aspect of the evidence of both sides and has come to the clear and succinct conclusion that Roberts-Smith was directly involved in the murders of four unarmed prisoners over three years from 2009 to 2012. He is, in effect, a serial killer.
I would say Jay_D is distinguishing between an actual firefight or combat area and what BRS did. In a Combat Area where anyone can generally be a combatant, it’s harder to distinguish between civilians and enemy soldiers. It’s not the soldier’s fault that they’re in the combat zone and generally it’s a struggle for survival for them as well. BRS of course wasn’t in that situation and should hang for his crimes
Knew a guy once who was pushing for SAS. Was definitely cut from similar cloth. BRS probably not the only bad egg in there, I suspect the nature of the work invites more questionable character types. Also suspect BRS must have been particularly bad by that standard for his servicemen to find his conduct off putting. That said, i know bugger all about anything in the armed services.
To the every day person, its utterly reprehensible of course and by any standard unaaceptable.
Afghanistan was not a typical war, you had the Taliban actively blurring the lines between enemy combatants and civilians. It was not a traditional war with opposition soldiers in uniforms, displaying insignia etc. Taliban would hide among women & children. This kind of environment wears down soldiers mentally not unlike what happend in Vietnam. Over time the entire population can become dehumanised in the eyes of the soldiers. When that happens the soldier should be sent home. Theres a question here in that were the same Australian SAS soldiers being redeployed to Afghanistan too often?
Having said that, of course going around killing confirmed civilians is abhorrent and anyone doing that should be punished.
As for the prosthetic leg, that kind of stuff has happened in war since the dawn if time. Sorry if it offends some sensibilities. People in traumatic wartime environments can blow off steam in macarbre ways as the boundaries of normality have been stretched. It might be technically illegal but it happens.
Also depends who’s leg it was. My understanding was that it was from an enemy combatant not a civilian. If a civilian then of course that adds to the crime.
As i said, time will tell what additional info emerges. If war crimes can be proven then BRS should be charged.
SAS (and in general all special forces) is meant to pre-screen their soldiers for any mental abnormalities, but it’s a pretty f*cked up job. Expected to drop deep behind enemy lines and essentially survive would be massively taxing and takes a specific character. Throw in a battlefield like Afghanistan, it would be horrible at the best of times.
It’s interesting following some of the Western volunteers coming back from Ukraine. They constantly talk about the difference in fighting in Ukraine and Afghanistan. The pressure is greater in Ukraine from the constant shelling, but at least they know who their opposition is.
