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Gundog


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This is worth reading.
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Dear General Angus Campbell AO, DSC,

I drank alcohol while on deployment in Afghanistan.

There, Ive got it off my chest.

I note youve come down heavily on your troops, with a new directive stating deployed ADF personnel are banned from drinking alcohol, reiterating previous advice that was flouted by the nations most elite troops.

May I remind you, Sir, that all alcohol consumed by the troops was provided to us by ADF Senior Officers, to be consumed on days of Western cultural significance?

In hindsight, this was in spite of Middle Eastern cultural sensitivities likely offended by the ADF. In hindsight, I am sorry for my own insensitivity.

I drank my beer on Christmas Day 2014, Remembrance Day, and numerous other days, sitting next to two Major Generals (each decorated with an AM, CSC, and DSM) who drank theirs.

Are you and your top ADF leaders now to be reprimanded for providing that alcohol, and drinking it with your troops in Afghanistan?

Are you all to lose your service medals, and your coveted DSCs, AMs and CSCs?

Or are we going to continue this internationally-embarrassing facade, that you and your Senior Officers are too important to be held to account for mounting leadership failures?

Your public position of a retrospective alcohol policy is a clear example of what you and your officers consistently do: you weaponise your rank and your media access, re-inventing a narrative that paints your own soldiers as character-flawed (criminals even) insisting that your heavy-handed reproach of your own soldiers makes you somehow disciplined (a leader even).

Where did all of this start?

Lest we forget that in June 2019 the Federal Police stormed the ABC studios in Ultimo in search of the Afghan Files. Australian media began an immediate rebellion against the Coalition government by way of weekly emotional media stories about deceased veterans and their mothers. The consequent national support for veterans was palpable. Your own public image was annihilated (as was the Coalition governments political potency consequent to the LNPs decade-long allegiance with your opposition to a Royal Commission to investigate your failures).

With the most expensive, tax-payer-funded PR and media executives at your fingertips, what would be the best way for you to reframe these nationally-lauded suicidal veterans as contemptuous?

The invention of a war crimes story would do the trick.

And it did do the trick, didnt it Sir?

My infantry colonel Dad went to Vietnam only once. All my WWI, WWII ancestors went to war only once. You are responsible for sending your own soldiers to Afghanistan up to 13 (thirteen) deployments in a row. You have consistently ignored the impact this has had on their lives, livelihoods and families, painting any of their real or perceived failures in war as just that: THEIR failures.

Every one of the accusations you have made about your troops are YOUR failures.

Its time, Sir, that you sink with your ship.

You and your Senior Officers are all decorated with DSCs, AMs and CSCs, but youre fooling no one with your decorations. All of you have succumbed to pressures from the very politicians who dictate which of you will become Governor General. Your career ambitions have blinded you to your primary responsibility: to ensure the welfare of the young men and young women that Australian parents have entrusted into your care for the defence of our nation.

1,200 of them are dead.

The human toll of 1,200 deceased veterans is your legacy. Truth and justice are unstoppable your name and those of your cowardly silent Senior Officers will go down in history as the most despised military leaders of all time.

This Thursday, news will reverberate around the world that will shake the ADF to its foundations. Either way you ought to brace yourself for a fight to defend the most noble military family this nation has ever known.

I hope, and pray that you will adopt a humble and responsible approach to the issues raised above. And I hope, and pray that the 1,200 families affected by your defective leadership will find in their hearts to forgive you.

In continued service to my ADF patients,

Dr Daniel Mealey



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dorian


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If Dr Daniel Mealey is complaining about a retrospective ban on the drinking of alcohol by ADF personnel as some kind of veiled reference to the recent trial of a Victoria Cross recipient, I would think that a doctor would recognise the difference between a prosthetic leg and a drinking glass.

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Bicyclecamper


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As a veteran myself, but from another era, you have missed the point dorian.

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Possum3


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GD, like you I am in shock at the recent antics of some in the ADF. I have very similar views/beliefs to those expressed in the above document but would be wary on placing it on Social Media.

Do you have a reference for the above document purported to be from a Dr Daniel Mealey? - Are you certain of the veracity of the document?

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dorian


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This seems to be the source:

veteranweb.asn.au/news/heres-an-email-worth-reading-and-distributing/

To me, the good doctor does himself a disservice by referring to the "war crimes story" as an "invention". It's like he's trying to draw parallels with Kitchener who dodged the blame by sending the Breaker to the executioner. Undoubtedly the doctor is doing good work by drawing attention to the plight of his suicidal comrades, but dismissing the killing of unarmed civilians in such a way diminishes his work. And I find this surprising because he, more than anyone, should know firsthand the kind of long-lasting trauma that such actions cause.

That said, we still don't know if the letter is genuine.

 

"With the most expensive, tax-payer-funded PR and media executives at your fingertips, what would be the best way for you to reframe these nationally-lauded suicidal veterans as contemptuous?

The invention of a war crimes story would do the trick.

And it did do the trick, didn't it Sir?"



-- Edited by dorian on Monday 5th of June 2023 08:47:11 AM

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Gundog


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dorian wrote:

If Dr Daniel Mealey is complaining about a retrospective ban on the drinking of alcohol by ADF personnel as some kind of veiled reference to the recent trial of a Victoria Cross recipient, I would think that a doctor would recognise the difference between a prosthetic leg and a drinking glass.

 dorian this post is offensive and is mixing two different events, lets clear up one thing, the Victoria Cross recipent was not on trial, he was suing media for defermation and lost.

The way I read the letter has nothing to do with the prosthetic leg as a drinking vessel, its about the blanket ban on drinking alcohol whilst operational and the attempt to remove medals from soldiers.

Think of our gallent general he was awarded with a distingished service cross "Campbell was promoted to the rank of major general and appointed as Commander Joint Task Force 633 in 2011, responsible for all Australian forces deployed in the Middle East, including Afghanistan. For his command in Afghanistan he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.[5]"

Like most senior officers they can be awarded medal for sitting in a comfortable office far away from the front commanding troops, unlike the front line soldier in harms way has to do something special to get nominated for an award.

Just like public service leeches who gongs for just doing the job they were paid to do, or if they stuff up get transfered out and promoted with a pay rise ie robo debt PS.



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peter67


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Good one Gundog, it seems that the poo still rolls downhill.

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dorian


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I have never heard it said that the ADF was considering stripping medals from soldiers who drank alcohol during their past deployments. This suggestion seems so ridiculous and so unjust as to be totally implausible. What about the soldiers who smoked marijuana during their tours of Vietnam? I haven't heard mention of that either.

The author implies that the war crimes story was an invention, yet could it be that he is attempting to preemptively deflect attention away from the prosthetic leg incident by stirring up manufactured outrage against an invention of his own?

Let me say that a country can never do enough for its service personnel. We can never repay them for the sacrifices and hardships that they have endured. My personal feeling about this case is one of overwhelming despair. What is there left to believe in?

Just to provide some perspective from the other side, my godfather fought against the Germans and communists during WW2. His sister was randomly selected from the girls in his village and hanged in reprisal by the communists. The murderers were never brought to account for their crimes. In fact he tracked downed the platoon leader during the 1990s and had intended to kill her, but she pleaded for her life and he let her go.

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Gundog


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peter67 wrote:

Good one Gundog, it seems that the poo still rolls downhill.

 Yep Just read this one, Is fact or fiction.

And why is his records sealed.

 

https://donaldwilliamtate.medium.com/incompetence-and-the-military-cross-the-incongruous-war-record-of-lt-peter-cosgrove-mc-66111d4b0a35



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Gundog


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dorian wrote:

I have never heard it said that the ADF was considering stripping medals from soldiers who drank alcohol during their past deployments. This suggestion seems so ridiculous and so unjust as to be totally implausible. What about the soldiers who smoked marijuana during their tours of Vietnam? I haven't heard mention of that either.

The author implies that the war crimes story was an invention, yet could it be that he is attempting to preemptively deflect attention away from the prosthetic leg incident by stirring up manufactured outrage against an invention of his own?

Let me say that a country can never do enough for its service personnel. We can never repay them for the sacrifices and hardships that they have endured. My personal feeling about this case is one of overwhelming despair. What is there left to believe in?

Just to provide some perspective from the other side, my godfather fought against the Germans and communists during WW2. His sister was randomly selected from the girls in his village and hanged in reprisal by the communists. The murderers were never brought to account for their crimes. In fact he tracked downed the platoon leader during the 1990s and had intended to kill her, but she pleaded for her life and he let her go.

 Stripping military medals

 

But in another fracture in the myth-making and politics of this conflict, there is an ongoing controversy over the attempts of the current Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell to implement one of the recommendations of the Brereton inquiry that military medals and honours could not "in good conscience be retained" by individuals bearing a moral responsibility for command and other failures, and that the ADF should review them.

Campbell was over-ruled in 2020 by the then defence minister, Peter Dutton when he immediately moved to strip 3,000 special forces troops of their meritorious unit citations. In the last month or so, he has written to a small number of officers saying he was going to recommend they be stripped of their decorations. Senator Jacqui Lambie attacked Campbell in Senate estimates hearings this week, arguing he should return his own Distinguished Service Cross if he wishes to strip medals from more junior officers.

Brereton's findings controversially laid the blame for the "criminal behaviour" he reported on at the level of patrol commanders, rather than those higher up the chain of command who only had a moral responsibility for what had happened. Lambie's attack this week showed the very real issues of responsibility and accountability within the military chain of command raised by the Roberts-Smith case. 

But just what should the accountability be for politicians on all sides who send our troops to fight and are prepared to exploit military jingoism for political reasons, but somehow don't seem quite sure what to do with the ugly outcomes?



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dorian


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I stand corrected. I do remember the news of that time, although it was in the context of an endemic culture of "blooding" by the SAS. The writer of that letter appears to trivialise the general's decision by framing it as a response to the misdemeanours of alcohol consumption rather than the unlawful killings. I guess that's why it didn't ring a bell.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-19/defence-peter-dutton-overturn-decision-strip-veterans-decoration/100078026

 

Mr Dutton on Monday announced he would overturn the decision to strip honours from around 3,000 defence personnel who served between 2007 and 2013.

Last year the Chief of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), General Angus Campbell, recommended the meritorious unit citation be revoked for the Special Operations Task Group, in the wake of the Inspector-General of the ADF's Inquiry report into war crimes.

General Campbell announced the move while handing down the explosive report which found Australian special forces murdered at least 39 prisoners and civilians during the Afghanistan war.



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Stretch60


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Campbell got awarded a DSO as commander of all Australian assets in Afghanistan. It used to be for actions during actual combat but now any man and his dog sitting in an office in the rear can get one. If Campbell had actual combat experience and faced enemy ordinance then maybe he would have some credibility.

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Possum3


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As usual, many "keyboard warriors" are unable to distinguish between "Allegations" and "Facts". Never was and never will be I'm afraid.


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dorian


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Timely ...

www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-13/push-for-breaker-morant-on-boer-war-memorial/102473794

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"No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full."

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peter67


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Stretch60 wrote:

Campbell got awarded a DSO as commander of all Australian assets in Afghanistan. It used to be for actions during actual combat but now any man and his dog sitting in an office in the rear can get one. If Campbell had actual combat experience and faced enemy ordinance then maybe he would have some credibility.

 Spot on, here here for the good old REMF.



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