Perth View

The Ben Roberts-Smith Story Australia Doesn’t Want to Talk About

Three Australian soldiers lay dead in their beds.

Not in battle. Not in a firefight.
But on their own base—betrayed in the dark by a man wearing the same uniform.

Private Robert Poate.
Sapper James Martin.
Lance Corporal Rick Milosevic.

Killed in a so-called “green-on-blue” attack—an Afghan soldier who turned his weapon on the very men he was supposed to fight beside.

That’s the war people don’t want to remember.

Now fast forward.

Ben Roberts-Smith — Victoria Cross recipient, one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers — is once again in the headlines, this time arrested and facing criminal war crime charges relating to Afghanistan. 

And just like that, the narrative resets.

Hero becomes headline.
Service becomes suspicion.
War becomes courtroom.

But here’s the part that makes people stop and question everything.

The enemy Australia fought in Afghanistan did not wear uniforms in the traditional sense.

They blended in.
They switched roles.
They could be a farmer one day—and a spotter the next.

Even Australian families have said as much. The father of Private Poate himself pointed out the reality: that in Taliban-controlled regions, civilians and fighters were often indistinguishable.

That wasn’t a theory.

That was the battlefield.

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So when soldiers like Roberts-Smith were sent into villages like Darwan, they weren’t stepping into clear-cut combat zones.

They were stepping into ambiguity.

Into split-second decisions.
Into environments where hesitation could get you killed.

And into a war where the enemy had already shown they would infiltrate allied forces, gain trust, and murder Australians in their sleep.

Yes—there are serious allegations.

A Federal Court judge, in a civil case, found that some allegations were proven on the “balance of probabilities.” 

But that is not a criminal conviction.

It is not “beyond reasonable doubt.”
It is not a jury verdict.
And it is not the end of the legal story.

Roberts-Smith has always maintained his innocence.

And now, finally, the matter moves into a criminal court—where the standard of proof is as high as it gets.

Here’s the uncomfortable question.

Why does it feel like Australia is relentless in pursuing its own soldiers…
while men like Hekmatullah — responsible for killing Australians through deception — walk free in Afghanistan?

Celebrated, even.

No arrest.
No trial.
No accountability.

This isn’t about saying soldiers are above the law.

They’re not.

But it is about recognising the reality of the war they were asked to fight.

A war of deception.
A war without uniforms.
A war where trust itself became a weapon.

And it raises a bigger question for Australia:

Do we fully understand the conditions we sent our soldiers into…
before we judge the decisions they made inside them?

Because once you strip away the headlines and the courtroom language, what remains is this:

A man who served his country at the highest level.
A war that was anything but conventional.
And a nation still trying to decide how to reconcile the two.

Written by Perth View.

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A slap in the face 💸

With global instability rattling our economy, Aussies crushed by high prices, and a fuel crisis hitting farmers and families hard, THIS is what Labor chooses to spend your money on.

Taxpayer-funded grants exclusively for multicultural communities.

Labor is playing identity politics with your money while you struggle to fill up your car and pay your bills. Disgraceful.