Category: Politics

A SENIOR Government frontbencher says she felt sick when she learnt of a sex scandal engulfing Defence. Relations between Defence Minister Stephen Smith and the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) are tense following revelations an 18-year-old woman was filmed by webcams having sex with another student. You need to toughen up Nicola. It’s one thing to back your colleague but quite another to get involved in hyperbowl I can’t actually see how it’s a ADF scandal. The cadets have been at ADFA for all of ten weeks, are juveniles just coming to grips with hormone surges and are doing what every other similar aged kid is doing or trying to do – have sex. What is a scandal is Smith’s refusal to support the Commandant of ADFA as he goes through his procedures. The girl in question was up for disciplinary hearings before she went public involving AWOL and alcohol. Smith suggests because this other matter came to the attention of the public, ADF discipline should be shelved. Doesn’t work that way. Having sex is not the issue either but the male cadet filming and broadcasting the act is. He simply should be dismissed from ADFA. Not so much for breaking the fraternising rule but for being a cad and bounder. Gentlemen do not kiss and tell. Likewise the girl should be removed. She has broken the frat rule, been AWOL and drunk and brought the ADF into disrepute. In my day any one of these transgressions would result in dismissal. Her case, and its a good one, is against the Cad and Bounder, not the ADF. Once she is a civilian she should sue the bastard for all he’s worth.

The politically correct movement existed in my day. In South Vietnam we were told to stop referring to our Vietnamese allies and enemy as ‘Noggies’. Being good soldiers we did what we were told and called them ‘Nigels’ when the brass were listening, and Noggies, slopes and anything else that came to mind when they weren’t. In Afghanistan the diggers prove once again that the more things change the more they stay the same but in this case it is Ch7 with their ‘put down on diggers campaign’ that have dug up an obscure Digger or Diggers referring disparagingly to Taliban, Afghanistan locals and ALP politicians. What got up my nose was that the Generals responded and Foreign Affairs minister Smith even apologised to his Afghanistan equivalent for the language used. I received this email this morning from an old mate that lays out the ex service community’s feelings on the subject

The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds and the highest morale and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marines. These words were spoken during World War 2 by the First Lady of America, Eleanor Roosevelt. Can you imagine the boost in morale she gave her troops. What a difference today. We have the Minister of Defence, every politically correct commentator and even members of the General Staff prepared to kick our soldiers, once again, in the guts for being soldiers. The Prime Minister has been prepared to turn a blind eye and let her underlings do the dirty work. Has one of these Generals ever had the opportunity to lead a platoon into battle, casuvac his casualties, write a letter to the next of kin of one of his soldiers? If so, he can then comment on the conduct and political incorrectness of his fighting soldiers. In the public eye this furor will be past history within a week or so. But the lack of support to our fighting men will linger forever. These rough men and women take, occupy and hold ground from the enemy so we, the protected, live on in ignorant bliss. For every neice, nephew and second cousin, who cannot get a seat in the church, at the funeral of the next Australian Digger killed in action, tell one of the Polititians, Generals, Admirals or Field Marshalls there for the photo opportunity to move one pew backward in the Church, “You didn’t support him or his, mates when he was here, so move to the back row.” To our men and women fighting for freedom, remember, you will always have the support from us, the ones like you who have met the dragon and spat in his eye. And another thing, which will never diminish is your honour and sense of Duty First. It will stay with you forever. I. G. Atkinson

Sailors getting drunk on shore leave and trying to score and soldiers talking rough about the enemy (and that includes the ALP)….what is the world coming to?