Credlin: Why trial of VC winner is not the whole story

While a damning court judgment reveals terrible mistakes were made in Afghanistan, it’s far from clear that it’s just Ben Roberts-Smith, and some of his SAS comrades, who’ve made them, writes Peta Credlin.

When does a beaten enemy go from being a combatant to a prisoner, and where’s the line between the necessary brutality of war and criminality? Obviously, these distinctions matter and, in the case of Ben Roberts-Smith, it seems that these lines have been crossed.

But the fact that some of his fellow warriors, as their testimony shows, regarded him as a hard “soldier’s soldier”, while others thought him a murderer, suggests that very different interpretations are possible, even if the facts can be agreed.

And while it’s pretty clear, following last Thursday’s damning court judgment, that terrible mistakes have been made, it’s far from clear that it’s just the VC recipient, and some of his SAS comrades, who’ve made them.

The Australian soldiers comprising our task group in Uruzgan province were really three different armies. Of the roughly 1500 troops deployed at any one time, about half were essentially support personnel, meaning they rarely left the comparative safety of the heavily fortified base.

I visited this base at Tarin Kot on four separate occasions and it resembled a modern industrious village, in the middle of lunar-like landscape, surrounded by guns, wire and concrete.

In addition to those inside the base, there were also about 400 regular infantry, in what we called the “mentoring task force”, whose job was to patrol the fertile valleys, usually with elements of the Afghan national army, sometimes to clear but mostly to hold ground that was safe for the civilian population (more or-less loyal to the Afghan government) to go about their lives.

An Australian Army soldier from Special Operations Task Group prepares for a night mission with the Afghan National Security Force's Special Response Team in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, in 2010. Picture: Department of Defence

Then there was the 400-strong Special Operations Task Group, alternately SAS or commandos, who several nights a week would venture forth into the badlands on what were essentially hunter-killer missions, to find and destroy those who were thought to be hardened Taliban insurgents.

It was not uncommon for our special forces operators to have done six or more tours of duty, mostly dealing out death to a less-skilled enemy, but sometimes having it dealt back to them.

I’m not sure that any of us, who have never been exposed to deadly combat, can fully grasp just how psychologically fraught and morally deadening this could be. That’s why I won’t join the pile-on against Roberts-Smith, typified by the vindicated journalists (who have themselves never risked a bullet for our country) now triumphantly describing him as a liar, a bully and a murderer.

Without having been exposed to deadly combat, no one can fully grasp just how psychologically fraught and morally deadening the hunter-killer missions Ben Roberts-Smith was sent on could be. Picture: Tertius Pickard

Yes, he may have been all those things, in some instances, but the judgment against him last week was a civil law matter, with a lower burden of proof (on the ‘balance of probabilities’) and not a war crimes trial operating at the criminal standard of proof (‘beyond reasonable doubt’). Even if he is charged (and that hasn’t occurred to date) and found criminally guilty, that won’t be the whole story.

Our country sent him and his fellow soldiers on hardest job of all, to kill people who would kill us for our beliefs, and to protect people who just wanted to live and worship in their own way. And if mistakes were made, at least some of the fault lies with us too – and with the senior commanders, now tut-tutting about the excesses of military culture.

Plainly, a succession of risk-averse governments and military hierarchies expected too much of the SAS and the commandos, whose extraordinary level of skill and professionalism was thought to render them less likely to suffer casualties than normal infantry.

Then there’s the resentment inherent when particular soldiers are singled out for gallantry awards, given that soldiering takes a team, as well as brilliant individuals, with each member exposed to similar deadly risks.

Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith after receiving the Victoria Cross from Governor-General Quentin Bryce in 2011. Picture: Corporal Chris Moore

Roberts-Smith became a target, as well as a hero, the instant he gained the ultimate accolade of the VC. I might add, given all the talk he should be stripped of his VC without a criminal conviction, that the Victoria Cross is a not a “best and fairest” award. It’s a medal for ‘most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent valour or self-sacrifice’ and I defy anyone to read his citation for bravery on 11 June 2010 and say he didn’t deserve it.

Of course, even in war, our soldiers are expected to act honourably, and it’s never right to harm prisoners. On the other hand, we have to accept that terrible things happen in war, especially after people have seen their mates slaughtered, or brought in prisoners reasonably suspected of making suicide vests, or being a bombmaker, only to see them released on some legal technicality.

Fits of moral indignation seem to be characteristic of these times. But the pariah status we seem so happy to confer on people sometimes turns out to be undeserved.

Think Cardinal George Pell, convicted and jailed before the High Court unanimously exonerated him 7-0. Think of the Bruce Lehrmann case, where a righteous trial-by-media declared him guilty of raping Brittany Higgins but, as the Sofronoff inquiry goes on, is starting to look more and more like an orchestrated show trial to score a political point. What’s happened to the old presumption that people are innocent until proven guilty; or the understanding that only those without sin should be the first to a cast stone?

Our greatest military historian, Charles Bean, knew something about flawed heroes. Writing of the original Anzacs, he said: “The good and the bad, the greatness and the smallness of their story will stand. Whatever of glory it contains, nothing now can lessen”.

My respect for those who wear our uniform has not diminished.

WOMEN HAVE RIGHT TO PROTECT OWN SPACES FROM MEN

I’m not normally a big fan of the United Nations, which often has dictatorships lecturing democracies on human rights.

But, last week, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women issued a statement that rightly condemned the growing intimidation of women for speaking out and demanding respect for their sex-based rights, including the right of women to their spaces (toilets, changerooms, sporting competitions and more) free from the intrusion of biological males.

The UN Special Rapporteur, Ms Reem Alsalem, didn’t miss when she was on my Sky show either.

MP Moira Deeming was expelled from the Liberal Party Team. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

She said it was wrong for Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto to evict Moira Deeming, one of his MPs, from the party room for allegations she denies and without any proper investigation, and raised serious concerns about the party’s lack of due process.

“It’s very convenient” she said, “to brush everybody with the stroke of calling them Nazi, bigot, genocidaire”. It’s the “green light”, she said, “to say that you should hate the group that’s being smeared”.

Too often, she said, confronted with a clash of rights, governments, especially Western ones, have been too “timid”. “Sometimes they have even … condoned these acts of violence against women.”

Normally, if a UN agency criticised Australia for, say, denying the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, it would be all over the airwaves and papers courtesy of the ABC and commercial media.

But somehow, our moral guardians go quiet when there’s criticism of a Liberal leader for doing the left’s own dirty work.

By moving against Deeming, Pesutto orchestrated a massive act of political self-harm and, if he thinks it’s going away, he’s kidding himself.

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm