Nothing to be gained in defending possible war crimes

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 5 years ago

Nothing to be gained in defending possible war crimes

Lt-Col Derek Gough (Ret) (Letters, June 19) really should stop digging. There is no excuse for the alleged execution of civilians by the SAS in Afghanistan and his disingenuous attempt to conflate that with the death of legitimate enemy combatants in previous conflicts is sickening. The alleged incidents also didn't happen on the spur of the moment. That he is so vociferously a defender of possible war crimes is to his shame. War might be dirty but if we abandon humanity and discipline then we have forsaken all moral authority and descended into barbarism. So much for the great Western Civilisation we've been hearing so much about from conservatives lately! Most worryingly, he has also by extension just become an apologist for the vile war crimes of the Japanese and Nazis in WWII. I am glad he is retired.

David Jenkins, Casey

Send letters to letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au

Send letters to letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au

Lt-Col Derek Gough (Ret) observed that "war is a filthy and disgusting business" and that during times of exceptional stress "unfortunately the niceties of civilised behaviour are often stretched to breaking point." We know that decent people are capable of the most atrocious behaviour under extreme circumstances. Surely, a significant proportion of blame for wartime atrocities must be reserved for those politicians who drape themselves in our flag and create those extreme circumstances by sending our young people off to needless and futile conflicts.

Peter Grabosky, Forrest

Derek Gough asks the "bleeding hearts" why don't they ask about crimes committed by Australian soldiers in all previous conflicts, rather than just focusing on Afghanistan?

It's a good question. In seeking the answers, we might come to the conclusion that the present examples of unacceptable behaviour are merely the tail end of a global culture that has been present among Australian military forces ever since they were formed. Nevertheless, contrary to Derek's assertion I, for one, do not tar all military personnel with the same brush; it is those few who commit dreadful misdeeds who do that, far more effectively than any outsider — and that's a great shame.

I also reject Derek's assertion that only those who have served in combat can "understand what real pressure is all about". Our police forces and, increasingly, paramedics are almost daily faced with the uncertainty over whether they will return home safe at the end of the day. Don't tell me they do not know what "real pressure" is.

Rather than us denigrating our armed forces, I think we have been persuaded, at the instigation of our political leaders, to over-emphasise their role in our country's history. I trust Derek is not excusing the bad behaviour of the few in order to perpetuate the growing mythology.

Eric Hunter, Cook

Advertisement

Threat to Manuka

As an old Canberran I was deeply disappointed to read of the plans for a hotel at Manuka ("Protected Manuka tree could stand in hotel's way", June 18, p10). The developer here is the same developer who replaced our beautiful heritage theatre with an ugly and now poorly maintained theatre centre. The developer is quoted as describing the proposed hotel as "very beautiful". The developer says the tree standing in her way was registered on "false information". A claim she also made about the heritage value of our original theatre. She is quoted as saying of the tree standing in her way "it has to be removed and it will happen". This is the same attitude she took to our beautiful heritage theatre. Look at the quality of this developer's current buildings at Manuka.

Elizabeth Thurbon, Campbell

Origins of a phrase

Actually, Pauline Westwood, there is a "discrete entity" called "Western Civilisation" (Letters, June 19).

Sure, it's a social and academic construct but nonetheless it makes a useful shorthand to describe a part of the world that in recent years millions of people escaping from a different civilisation are risking their lives to get to. Yes, it owes a lot to Islamic scholarship, but that itself also owes a lot to the earlier scholarship and thought of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Euclid, et al who believed in robust argument — not that it did Socrates much good — and whose Greek writings the fortunes of war saw translated into Arabic, then Latin and later disseminated generally.

The concept of freedom of thought gradually became popular in the West, to the extent that a French philosopher in effect subscribed to the argument that everyone had a right to be heard even if not necessarily agreed with, and it's now become somewhat of a cornerstone of western civilisation.

It's sometimes ignored, of course, but one is not usually banged up in a filthy cell for an indefinite period for mocking or insulting a president or a supernatural being and the dogma surrounding it. Or, come to that, being blown up or shot by zealous religious adherents objecting to our sense of humour. Current western civilisation has its faults, as does its history, but its strength is its ability to admit and argue them with impunity, unlike other cultures.

Bill Deane, Chapman

Accepting the blame

It is high time (Professor) Laurie Brown ("Fury over scrapping of club fine", June 20, p4) took personal responsibility for her gambling problem and the more than $225,000 she lost playing the pokies rather than continually blaming the Raiders Club. Denial of responsibility is the classic response of an addict; blame someone else; it is not my fault! Professor Brown is reported to have said: "I chose to go into the Raiders". That being a correct quote, then it clearly is Professor Brown's fault and she should accept personal responsibility for it. No amount of attempting to point the finger at the Raiders Club will change that.

Don Sephton, Greenway

Paying to plug in

I note that the NRMA and now the ACT government are installing the electrical recharging infrastructure to support the adoption of electric cars across the ACT and NSW. Rather than using members' and ratepayers' funds, the car companies such as Tesla should be required to fund the installation of one recharging point for each electric car imported into this country as a community obligation. It could be introduced as a compulsory importation obligation by the Federal Government.

Rohan Goyne, Evatt

Optus at issue

State-funded SBS has stepped in, at least temporarily, to save the World Cup broadcasting that private enterprise company Optus cannot provide.

The Liberal Party Council on Saturday called for an "efficiency" review into SBS. Surely they meant Optus?

John Passant, Kambah

ABC of free press, speech

Thanks for publishing the "ABC is a dinosaur, time to privatise" opinion piece (June 19, p19). It was valuable to see the reasoning behind that motion put at the recent Liberal Party convention.

There seem to be three major points being made:

  • a publicly funded broadcaster "crowds out its private competitors";
  • that technology-driven media makes the ABC "obsolete";
  • the ABC has "crept well beyond its mission statement".

The first two points seem to contradict each other.

The commercial broadcast media have somehow not become obsolete through technological change, and yet the ABC, obsolete though it is, is "crowding them out". Surely commercialising the ABC would just add to the overcrowding and send ad revenues "tumbling" even more?

The piece praises online publishing, but ignores the fact that the ABC has a strong online presence as well as its broadcast function.

It's true that anybody can publish online, and that has drawbacks as well as the obvious virtues.

I've learned all about how the Earth is flat, how there are Nazis on the moon, the royal family are 12 foot flesh-eating lizards, and recently that Australia doesn't exist – all from YouTube. I've also done some very valuable learning about my latest passion, songwriting, from the same source. Harry Stutchbury seems to be assuming that all sources of information are equal when they aren't.

That's the fundamental point about the ABC: it provides a generally trustworthy, accountable, and accessible foundation for our knowledge of the world because it employs high quality journalists and producers.

I don't really understand the mission statement creep argument, because no details are given. Can we take it to be code for "the ABC has a left wing bias"? I'd observe that from a naive right perspective, everything seems to be left including the centre.

As far as I know, changing the ABC charter would need an act of Parliament. I think that makes the whole thing a kite-flying exercise, perhaps to win over One Nation voters, while giving the senior leadership the opportunity to make one of those chilling political reassurances that they will never, ever do something. The ABC has their full support.

Michael Williams, Curtin

The very essence of a democracy is a free press. Hitler knew that once he had muzzled the German information outlets he had total power.

All over the world corrupt governments use draconian laws to stifle free speech.

It is sad to see the Liberal Party overwhelmingly seeking to privatise the ABC.

If they achieved their aim Murdoch would inevitably gain control and add the ABC to his 80 per cent monopoly of Australian media.

In America, Fox and an overwhelming number of media outlets toe the conservative line.

Our only protection is the preference of most TV viewers for the ABC for news and current affairs. I think we all have the commonsense to realise that with most conservative parties already dependent on the wealthy for donations we must keep the ABC as a protection for our basic values.

Howard Carew, Isaacs

Here we go, here we go. Harry Stutchbury, president of the NSW young Libs, writes an opinion piece in The Canberra Times, stating the ABC would be forced to economise and focus on delivering what consumers want when privatised amongst other inane comments. He, of course, means what the Libs want and damn the rest of us. He uses the Commonwealth Bank and Telstra as examples of not shutting down once privatised. Not exactly shining examples, Harry, considering their current state. Do put some thought into what you write before you write it. Remember one day you too will be older and be part of a bygone era just a different one to the current set of oldies.

Jan Gulliver, Lyneham

Pet heartache

The ACT domestic animal services (DAS) has given new meaning to the word 'nadir' ("Animal Services' order to euthanise missing pet", June 20, p5). Also DAS had the hide to order the destruction of this dog given it did not wait the prescribed seven days, in fact it only waited one day.

If the seven-day procedure had been followed, the owner would have had plenty of time to reclaim his dog. After all he had already checked with DAS and RSPCA lost pet sites and found no trace of his dog. This demonstrated he was a responsible and loving pet owner who, given time, would have tracked down his beloved dog. In contrast DAS comes out looking like incompetent and feeling-less fools.

John Galvin, Weston

Not ringing true

Please explain ... Malcolm Turnbull. If Telstra is going to slash 8000 jobs, and your government claims to "create 1000 jobs a day" is the Telstra move equivalent to only eight "government days" days of work?

Could you please explain ... Malcolm Turnbull: How you are going to help people caught up in those eight Telstra "government days" get re-employed, and exactly what jobs are you and your government going to offer them.

Could you please remind us ... Malcolm Turnbull: When you claim the Bureau of Statistics says we have "full employment" is that people in full-time work with holiday leave, sick leave and super or is that 14 hours or less per fortnight, no holidays, no super and no sick leave?

E. R. Moffat, Weston

No defence

So Michael Attwell and other correspondents (Letters, June 18) want those who have not been members of the defence forces to shut up about the alleged atrocities in Afghanistan.

The official statements indicate that these allegations have in fact come from serving and former members of the Defence Forces.

And the Defence chain of command is having them investigated according to law. Isn't that what we would expect from a "disciplined" force?

Or is the point that mere citizens should not express any opinions about the issue?

I thought we had fought two world wars against that argument. Not convinced, Michael.

Ric Innes, Weetangera

TO THE POINT

NAKED APPROACH

Raw emotion or just naked ambition, either way it will be cold comfort for the participants ("Best foot forward for midwinter nude swim", June 16, p18).

Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook NSW

ABC GENERATION

Harry Stutchbury, president of NSW Young Liberals, thinks the ABC is a dinosaur ("ABC is a dinosaur, time to privatise", June 19, p19) and needs privatising. He'd probably think those of us in our '70s and '80s are dinosaurs, too, but we like reading newspapers and listening to the ABC and watching its television programs. Not having grown up in the technological age we aren't interested in fixing our eyes on our smart phones all day.

Gwenyth Bray, Belconnen

TAKING CHARGE?

Not content with running the country, AGL, the ABC and the ANU, our PM has turned his prodigious leadership talents to running Optus. Who or what's next? Perhaps Qantas and Virgin to make the planes run on time and avoid ad hoc cancellations?

Graeme Rankin, Holder

TEACHING PRESSURES

Glenn Fowler's excellent piece ("Let's free up principals to do what they actually do best – lead, teach and learn", June 19, p18) highlights a crisis in education. But it is a crisis reaching beyond "the boss".

Sure, parents are busier. But for decades teachers at all levels have copped a major slice of the parental role. It's like a frog on a slow boil. Investigate. Ameliorate!

Barrie Smillie, Duffy

ASYLUM ISSUE

Congratulations to the Liberal and Labor parties for showing immigration staff in the USA and Europe on how to use heartbreaking, inhumane trauma and mental illness inducing policies to slow or deter migrants and asylum seekers fleeing horrendous and criminal abuses.

Charles Foley, Queanbeyan East, NSW

TREE'S NOT A CROWD

Why does a protected Manuka tree have to stand in the way of a proposed hotel development? Why not adopt some innovative design and incorporate the protected Manuka tree and its "legacy" into the proposed hotel design? ("Protected Manuka tree could stand hotel's way", June 18, p10).

Karen McLennan, Griffith

CUTS RUBBISH

The Canberra Times reports on June 19 that SBS cannot broadcast the full World Cup because of " budget cuts", the government cut staffing in the Department of Environment's endangered species unit by 60 and is depending on public donations to protect endangered species – there is a very long list of cuts. At the same time Australians are in the main better off than ever, so what is the point of more tax cuts? The government's line on stifling aspiration is rubbish.

Rod Holesgrove, O'Connor

Email: letters.editor@canberratimes. com.au. Send from the message field, not as an attached file. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.

Keep your letter to 250 or fewer words. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).

Most Viewed in National

Loading