June 12, 2023. Comment by Greg Ray
The establishment is angry.
It is unhappy that former SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith lost his defamation action against the Nine media group. It is unhappy that the allegations of war crimes – including murder of unarmed civilians – are now clearly and unambiguously pinned on the chest of the decorated former soldier alongside his much-lauded but now rather tarnished Victoria Cross.
In retrospect, it seems that the decision to launch the defamation action – funded by millions of dollars from the pockets of Australian billionaire Kerry Stokes – was a poor one, probably as poor as the very silly but much shorter-lived defamation action by former Liberal attorney general Christian Porter.
Defamation is a minefield for Australia’s media, which is how our political overlords like it. I mean, even colourful former NSW National Party identity John Barilaro won a tidy payout by suing Google over YouTube videos by journalist Jordan Shanks (aka Friendly Jordies). That was before Barilaro’s reputation was set ablaze by the government’s bizarre attempt to give him a highly paid post-politics sinecure in New York and also before Friendly Jordies had his house firebombed twice by persons unknown. (Please note I’m not suggesting Barilaro had anything to do with this. Jordies spread his attention widely and presumably has many enemies. The matter is, I suppose, in the hands of the NSW Police, elements of which have also suffered the thrusts of Jordies’ wicked journalistic lance, which might mean the case is unsolvable.)
My point is, when it comes to defamation in Australia, the odds are generally stacked against the media. In the case of Roberts-Smith, defendant Nine took the bold course of relying on the terrifying defence of “substantial truth”. The fact that they won using this difficult defence leaves the former soldier in the unpleasant legal situation of no longer having a good reputation to defend.
Onion-biter’s brain-fart
But wait, here comes the Murdoch media empire – of course – arguing that he should keep his medals, that it’s “only” a defamation action and therefore not really proof of anything and that bad things happen in war – invoking the famous “shit happens” brain-fart of onion-biter and NewsCorpse lovechild Tony Abbott.
What is it about the Global Empire of Money that makes it want to keep war crimes in the dark? Maybe because if the world ever really gets serious about turning the spotlight on war crimes the armies of the West will be front and centre, the number one perps and “usual suspects” wherever criminality in uniform is found.
The fact is, we aren’t ever supposed to hear about the misdeeds of our brave lads and lasses on the front lines of the war against whatever it is this week.
And let’s not even start to wonder if the very fact of the existence of scores of “black sites” around the world – into which the Global Empire of Money can hurl people who annoy it, or people against whom vague allegations might have been made – might be a war crime all of its own. Not to mention the campaign of US drone assassinations which have claimed the lives of an unknown but large number of innocent bystanders in various countries over quite a number of years. Wouldn’t it be a war crime if Russia or China did it?
The wet dream of our increasingly fascist authorities is to run their armed and dangerous global operations completely in the dark, entirely free of scrutiny and entirely free of consequences for themselves. They are already lawless and unaccountable. They just want that status to be set in stone and unchallengeable by those of us who imagine our pathetic votes have meaning.
That’s why Chelsea Manning was tortured, maligned, imprisoned, fined and abused. She blew the whistle on war crimes which to this day have never been formally acknowledged, much less punished.
Rotting in jail
That’s why Julian Assange is rotting in jail on the most ludicrous of grounds – so everybody who might contemplate helping whistle-blowers reveal the crimes of the mighty will know that the law is not only not their friend: it will be twisted and abused to make them suffer for their principles.
Will Ben Roberts-Smith face criminal charges now that his ill-fated defamation action has crashed and burned? The cynic in me wonders how intense the behind-the-scenes lobbying might be to prevent this outcome. Surely that was why we had the strange story in the press, in the week of the Roberts-Smith verdict, warning how the high-principled Americans might not want to work with the SAS if it was tarred with the war crimes brush. And surely that’s why Murdoch choristers are taking up the same silly refrain, that seeking the truth about a soldier’s alleged crimes and punishing them if proven true might ruin forever the fighting ability of that soldier’s erstwhile unit. It’s drivel. What really undermines a unit is having bad members doing bad things and getting away with it.
Meanwhile, the true nature of the beast – the dumb, blokey, mean and pathetic beast – shows clear as day in the fact that the brave man who leaked the allegations that led to the report and the media stories that started this whole ball rolling is facing charges in the ACT Supreme Court in November.
No whistle-blower protection for former military officer and lawyer David McBride, though perhaps he should be slightly grateful that he isn’t in solitary confinement in jail and undergoing slow-drip torture like Julian Assange.
Why is the government, the military establishment and the Global Empire of Money so keen to prosecute McBride for his public service is revealing the alleged war crimes of some of our troops? What benefit does the taxpayer receive for the millions being spent on pursuing him?
Again, it’s nothing more than warning to the rest of us: shut up, look the other way, don’t ask questions. The bullies think they can do what they like, to whoever they want, any time they feel like it and they demand complete impunity and absolute protection from scrutiny.
You seriously want to tell me this is how a “free and democratic” country should operate? Bullshit. If it was happening in a country on the Global Empire of Money’s hit-list the media would be calling it out. This is what military fascism looks like.
See more of Peter Lewis’s cartoon work here.
