The charging of Ben Roberts-Smith over alleged war crimes including murders of unarmed Afghan detainees and civilians marks a historic moment for Australia’s legal system and, more broadly, the nation.
For many Australians, especially those who have served their country, it will be deeply uncomfortable news. Every nation needs its heroes, and ever since the Anzacs, we’ve looked to our armed forces to produce them.
But democracies like ours are also underpinned by the rule of law and a free press – the Anzacs fought for those things.
That’s why the action against Roberts-Smith is so significant.
What sets Roberts-Smith apart is the power and reach of his backers, led by billionaire media mogul Kerry Stokes and former defence minister Brendan Nelson.
Stokes funded the legal and propaganda war on Roberts-Smith’s behalf, indifferent to the fact that it was SAS soldiers, just as brave as Roberts-Smith, who had called out his alleged brutalisation and summary execution of unarmed and detained Afghans.
Sections of the media also buried their heads or, worse, championed Roberts-Smith. A free press speaking truth to power became confused.
Little wonder that, despite profound evidence that weighs against him, the Victoria Cross recipient retains plenty of barrackers in the broader community. A Facebook group, “We stand with Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG” boasts 7000 members. A further online petition calling for Roberts-Smith to be pardoned claims 87,000 signatures.
This support overlooks the fact that the majority of evidence implicating Roberts-Smith came from his own comrades.
It is our own soldiers who objected to the alleged murder of defenceless Afghans. They, too, recognised the strategic cost of war crimes, in that these acts turned the Afghan population against them, further endangering fellow diggers.
As my colleague and collaborator Chris Masters has eloquently written, these soldiers also saw first-hand the psychological distress inflicted on the junior SAS operators Roberts-Smith allegedly bullied into committing unconscionable acts.
Meanwhile, the pain of Roberts-Smith’s Afghan victims lives on, many years after their husbands or fathers were allegedly executed.
It is understandable that many Australians will be left confused, confounded or despondent by Roberts-Smith’s prosecution.
The distinct lack of high command and political accountability on war crimes is a problem that has been highlighted by one of those ex-SAS witnesses, conservative MP Andrew Hastie.
Hastie has trodden an honourable but lonely path speaking up against war crimes, earning the ire of Stokes and fellow Roberts-Smith fan Gina Rinehart.
We will never know the names of most of those principled SAS men who confronted Roberts-Smith and his small crew of rogue operators. But Australians should be proud of them.
In response to the charging of Roberts-Smith, an SAS Afghan veteran turned prosecution witness told me that Australian soldiers whom he’d served with didn’t fight for glory or fame.
Asked who the real heroes were, this soldier didn’t hesitate. They were the soldiers who had died or been injured, he told me. While the mission in Afghanistan never produced democracy, the rule of law or a free press, this veteran insisted they remained things worth fighting for.
Roberts-Smith’s fate now lies with a jury of his peers who will decide if the famous soldier sought to act as judge, jury and executioner on the battlefield.
They may find him not guilty. But the mere fact he is being prosecuted because of the testimony of other soldiers highlights something far weightier than the myth of a hero: that in Australia, still, no one is above the law, and that truth and morality matter.
“You’ve got physical courage, and then you’ve got moral courage,” the SAS veteran told me. “And I can say from experience that moral courage takes a lot more.”
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Nick McKenzie is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email.