Australian Defence Force

The reader response to The Punch article, 12 January 2012, “Why have we abandoned our troops?” highlighted a deep misunderstanding of the central tenet of the article, and, more worryingly, a flawed knowledge of the actual conditions of service applicable in the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

Some of the more ill-informed myths about what entitlements our military men and women received were:

• Tax free salaries – No (but there are some concessions when deployed to war zones).

Continue reading "War is hell, and military life is no picnic" »

In yet another attack by a ‘rogue’ Afghan soldier, four French troops were shot dead last week.

Proponents of the current post-modern war fighting doctrine continue to believe we can make people love us.  Counterinsurgency has been a convenient doctrine swallowed by Western leaders as a politically correct way to fight a war. But it is built on the well-meaning principle of “hearts and minds” when it is nothing more than an unhealthy blend of social engineering and pork-barrel politics. 

The fact is in Afghanistan they love you until the money stops and even then, as the latest incidents show, nothing will bridge the cultural divide.

Continue reading "In Afghanistan trust no one and question everything" »

In the film Balibo, five journalists paint an Australian flag and the word ‘Australia’ on the wall of their ‘safe’ house. They are then coldly executed by the invading Indonesians.

They believed – naively, in retrospect - that their very Australianness and their civilian status as journalists would save them.

Their brutal slaying outrages us, offends our sense of fairness – and shows that the concept of fairness is an odd sort of idea to have in the midst of carnage.

Continue reading "All’s not fair in war" »

The recent string of casualties inflicted on Australian trainers by their Afghan students is part of the ongoing tragedy of war. It is also not making the job of selling the Afghan War to the Australian population any easier.

A recent Roy Morgan poll says that 72 per cent of Australians want to withdraw the troops. That’s good because we are, of course, going to withdraw and our casualties must be seen in that context. The withdrawal date is already set as 2014 and barring some strategic change, our combat troops will leave.

The Prime Minister has announced that there will be an ongoing training commitment to Afghanistan, but the detail is unclear. Of course, if there were no consequences for the withdrawal of our troops, they would have been withdrawn long ago.

Continue reading "Afghanistan: It is the manner of our leaving that matters" »

Writer, comedian and Can of Worms reporter Dan Ilic visited Aussie diggers in Afghanistan last month to perform a series of comedy shows. Today, he writes about what he saw and experienced, in the first of a two-part report.

Here are some tips for comedians. Never try out new jokes to a hostile crowd. If you do, keep it short.

Whatever you do, don’t go out to an unfamiliar audience and give them 15 minutes of new material you wrote just for them until you’ve actually learnt all the jokes. I did this recently on stage in front of a crowd of about 50.

I could tell the gig was going to be dull. It’s called Funny Shui: the audience all self-consciously sit as far away as possible from the stage. I couldn’t even make eye contact with this group. Showtime.

Continue reading "My Kandahar comedy show that literally bombed" »

Defence Minister Stephen Smith may see the first female body come back from the frontlines in Afghanistan and rue the day he peeled back the discriminatory laws that stopped women from taking up the most dangerous roles.

But he probably won’t. He probably won’t be Defence Minister and he probably won’t have implemented the changes before Australia withdraws from Afghanistan.

And, because he’s a fairly intelligent sort of bloke, he’ll probably have thought through the squeamishness of letting women do dangerous jobs and realised that’s what you do in a liberal, non-discriminatory society, even if it means poor press if things go to shit.

Continue reading "A woman’s right to choose war is her own battle" »

In 2006 I spent a couple of days at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

I inspected its organised dormitories (where male and female cadets shared the same buildings - but separate rooms). It’s like an upmarket youth hostel with communal kitchen and bathrooms at the end of each hallway. While there, I fired weapons, ate in the mess and spoke to staff including officers, professors and historians.  It’s an impressive place. 

ADFA at first glance looks like a tidy university, but walk into the bookshop and titles like Knife Fighting Techniques by inmates at Folsom Prison remind you this is a different world. This is a frat house with guns.

Continue reading "Inside ADFA: A frat house with guns" »

In the wake of the latest scandal to hit Defence, Defence Minister Stephen Smith has announced six inquiries, and says the Government will fasttrack changes so women can fight in all the most dangerous frontline positions. The Punch spoke to Australian Defence Association executive director Neil James about the move.

Q. Do you think women should be on the front line?

A. We support the fact that women in the Australian Defence Force serve on the front line and in combat (to the extent they currently can)... we also support the current scientific study into expanding the range of roles for women on the front line. We support evidence-based decisions - not emotive sloganeering.

This topic comes up every six to eight months and the discussion is never intellectually robust. Too many people enter it from an ideological viewpoint or they’re not across the facts. This is clearly a diversion by the minister - to divert attention from the fact none of the inquiries he’s called will investigate his apparent abuse of ministerial authority. He’s announced six reviews but none of them will include an investigation of him.

Continue reading "Consider this before you send women to the frontline" »

It sure is nice to see everyone upset with a culture of inequality and sexual objectification in the Australian Defence Force Academy. And then what happens after all the stern faces and head-shaking about those wayward ADF boys?

Coming up next…Two and a Half Men! Or how about a premiere screening of Observe and Report starring that adorably hilarious Seth Rogen? Or a special repeat screening of the inexplicably popular Wedding Crashers? Or maybe you don’t make it through the ads and turn off after a commercial for the new Hawaii Five-0.

Maybe a DVD instead; how about a perennial classic like a James Bond movie or teen-flick American Pie? Sick of TV, why not head outside and check out the unavoidable posters plastered all over bus-shelters for the new Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston flick, Just Go With It?

Continue reading "This one time, on ADFA camp…" »

The problem with Defence has been that nobody gets sacked.

Pushed sideways with a higher salary and rank maybe, but never taken out of a job as a punishment for failure.

That is the major significance of what has happened under Defence Minister Stephen Smith. Australian Defence Academy Commandant Bruce Kafer has been temporarily stood down as a consequence of the Skype sex scandal. Not many senior military figures have had to publicly lose face because of mismanagement.

Continue reading "Skirmish with Defence a long time coming" »

It’s hard to know whether those handling media for the Australian Defence Force are as clueless as they seem or are now openly trying to bait the Australian media.

Yesterday there were a couple of press releases sent out from the ADF.  The first was helpfully entitled: News Stories from Afghanistan – Three news stories for broadcast/publication.

Doing their favourite PLA impression, the ADF has in fact provided three media releases on Australia’s operation in Afghanistan labelled “news stories” and penned from within the organisation.

Continue reading "Much glorious Afghan victory has been won by ADF" »

On 28th July 2009, I flew out of Sydney bound for Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. It was to be the start of a fascinating trip into the Afghan war zone.

I embedded with the American 10th Mountain Division in Logar province, in the East part of the country. I was then shipped out to “The Tip of The Spear” as they called it, to the district of Kherwar.

The unit I joined was part of the Coalition’s blocking force against Taliban forces who are trying to use the area as an alternative entry point to the Wardack province and into Kabul.

Continue reading "Heart of darkness: inside the Afghan war zone" »