Award winning Pallywood images

This photo was posted on The Australian's website with the caption:

1st prize General News Singles
Picture: Kent Klich, Sweden
Light enters through a hole in the roof of a house hit by a tank shell, in Tuffah, northern Gaza. The family that lived in the house had fled during Operation Cast
Lead, the Israeli attack on Gaza that began at the end of December 2008.
Mohammed Shuhada Ali Ahmed, 39, had gone back to fetch clothes for his children,
and was killed when the shell struck.

Now, it seems quite obvious that something has gone through the roof, but that something did not explode. There are no shrapnel holes in the walls and the TV and the furniture are still intact. The other glaringly obvious detail is that whatever came through the roof came straight down. Tanks are not howitzers. At a pinch, tanks can be used in an indirect role; that is, that the main armament is used in a similar manner to an artillery piece. Unfortunately for the claim made by this photographer, they are not capable of firing their main armament at a high enough trajectory to drop a round straight through the roof of a building leaving an impact crater directly under the entry hole. Now, it may well be that the place has been cleaned up since the incident happened, in which case they have done a bang up job of cleaning the place up and filling the holes in the wall with spak-filla. Of course, why they put a new TV in a room with no roof remains a mystery, unless whatever it was that came through the roof didn't contain any High Explosive and didn't kill anybody at all.

Update: Below is a picture from the same photographer's website, the same album that contains the photo above. It shows what a wall looks like when it has been hit by shrapnel. Notice a difference?

Why just the officers?

ADF to drug test officers

Media to blame for Defence secrecy

The Daily Telegraph has run a story on the apparent secrecy around wounded ADF members returning from operations overseas. The thrust of the story is that Defence is trying to keep quiet the wounds that are being received over there. The story leads in with this line:

With opinion polls indicating Australians are divided over our involvement in Afghanistan, the Australian Defence Force's handling of casualties has come under scrutiny.

It has come under scrutiny from whom, the DT? The people getting upset at the lack of blood and gore horror stories coming from Afghanistan are the salivating media. The stories will come out, but rushing that through so that the Australian media scrum can onanate over the tragic circumstances of a wounded digger is not high on the list of priorities.

Wounded Australian soldiers, some having faced amputations and long-term suffering, are recuperating in facilities around the country, but the public seldom hears their stories.

Very true, the primary concern is the treatment and rehabilitation of the wounded. In order to achieve that, Defence go to significant lengths to make sure they are left alone by anyone not from their intimate circle of family and friends, or involved in their administration or their treatment. That includes nosy reporters having a slow news day.

The stories of the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan will come out. Some already have. The rest will happen when the wounded themselves are ready to tell their stories. Defence won't throw them in the deep end and feed them to the press, no matter how much that infuriates them.

A new Kokoda VC winner?

I was pointed in the direction of this article in the Mt Druitt Standard. From the text:

AN Aboriginal recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC) is unheard of but on Anzac Day, two young Aboriginal boys from Bidwill stood out as they marched from Rooty Hill to Pinegrove Memorial Park, Minchinbury.

True, there have been no Aboriginal VC winners, although I would be pleased to be corrected if I am mistaken. The article goes on though:

Their mother, Bernie, says the medals
belong to her grandfather, Frederick Charles Perry.

Ms Zammit told the Mt Druitt-St Marys
Standard that her grandfather served in the 39th (Hawthorn Kew Regiment) and
53rd battalions in Kokoda.

She said he died in 1974 without anyone
in his family knowing anything about his accomplishments.

She said she only discovered her own
indigenous background 10 years ago and had since fought to be given Mr Perry's
service medals.

She said she had no idea he had received a VC.

"Back then black fellas never got their medals and no one in my family had ever claimed his," she said.

"I had to push to get them and I only got them a week before Anzac Day.

Here's where it gets interesting. There is no Frederick Charles Perry, VC. The list of Australian VC winners is here. In fact, there are only two people of that name on the WWII Nominal Roll. Given the benefit of the doubt that her grandfather ever served in New Guinea, it must have been this Frederick Charles Perry. His service details have him as a driver with the 2/47 Australian Transport Platoon, with no honours or awards that fit the National Archive criteria for display (which would include a VC).

Why would someone make a claim to something so demonstrably refutable?

No sh*t Sherlock!

Hands up anyone who didn't see this coming. If course the media will be all over this as another example of Rudd's pointless, knee-jerk, symbolic, but ultimately useless gestures.........waiting......waiting.......

Suicide in the ADF

The Australian media have picked up on the common myth that the ADF is rife with bullied, suicidal soldiers. This old chestnut gets hauled out every time a member of the ADF commits suicide. Additionally, it gets wheeled out after every inquiry into said suicide, and then again when family members drag it up again. It’s a fairly natural response from members of the family who have lost a loved one. It’s a traumatic experience for all involved.

Whilst my heart goes out to anyone who has lost a family member or loved one through suicide, blaming the system is just an easy way out. Statistically, the ADF has a suicide rate about half that of the broader community. Given that the ADF targets and consists primarily of the peak demographic for suicide; that is an impressive achievement.

Admittedly, psychological screening on entry to the ADF does rule out some of those predisposed towards suicide, which would fudge the figures. On the other hand, members of the ADF are exposed to far greater stress situations than their civilian counterparts. By that, I’m not referring exclusively to the operational environment, as stressful as that is. There are also a number of other factors that create significant levels of stress and could lead to mental health problems.

The ADF targets its recruiting specifically at school leavers and young adults. The reason for that should be fairly self-evident. The training required to make the transition from civilian to soldier/sailor/airman is necessarily quite intense. These young people are taken out of their familiar environment and comfort zone, and exposed to a strict and sometimes overwhelming training environment designed specifically to prepare them for combat. Once that is complete, they are sent to another training institution for further development into their specific trade. Only then are they sent to a unit and life regains any semblance of normality, although that normality is not the world they left behind at the recruiting centre.

They are immersed in a world where discipline is key, where the chain of command controls almost every aspect of their lives. They are different people to what they once were. That is not to say they become inhuman. They will have friends like they never had before, people with whom they have conquered adversity and come out laughing on the other side. They are instilled with values like courage, initiative, teamwork and mateship.

At no stage in a military career can they expect to have what anyone else would refer to as a “normal” lifestyle. They are expected to maintain a high degree of fitness. An injury can cause serious career problems from that perspective. They can expect to move every 3-4 years, sometimes more frequently than that. Not across suburbs, but interstate and occasionally overseas, and often to remote locations away from their family and friends. They can expect even in peacetime to be away from home for extended periods for exercises or courses. They can expect to work long hours for no additional remuneration. They can expect that as defence tries to save more money each year, that they will fill two or even three jobs at the same time. Then there is operational service.

Operational tours cause a whole raft of difficulties just in and of themselves. Six to eight months overseas in a dangerous environment with limited ability to communicate with loved ones and in almost always very basic living conditions is difficult enough. Throw in actual combat or situations that are beyond the realm of rational understanding, and it only gets worse. That is why significant effort is made to screen all returning servicemen for psychological trauma during and after a deployment, but no routine program will ever identify every problem that lies dormant in the subconscious.

That is why military training institutions are hard. They are designed to be so that they can prepare, as much as humanly possible, a person for the career they’ve chosen. It says a lot about the military in this country that even accounting for initial entry screening, the rate of suicide is still half that of the rest of the community. Remember that ADF members, whilst exposed to all of these additional stressors, are also still people, and will experience all of the usual emotional disasters that befall the rest of the community. Relationships will fail (more so than outside the military for all of the reasons stated above), there will be deaths in the family, and poor financial decisions will cause additional hardship.

There are a number of support mechanisms in the ADF to help people deal with all of these additional burdens. The Defence Community Organisation exists to help families cope with the demands of service life. There are equity advisers in every unit and formation and are outside of the chain of command to deal with complaints about harassment, bullying or unfair treatment. There are people trained specifically in suicide prevention. There is a medical system that is trained to deal with mental illness and a dedicated Australian Army Psychology Corps (with appropriate counterparts in the other two services). There are philanthropic organisations like the Salvation Army and the Everyman who deploy to the field and even overseas sometimes. There is the circle of mates that only ever grows throughout your time in the service, and of course there are the Padres.

The padres deserve their own special mention. Chaplains in the ADF are a very special breed. The churches of the world could take a leaf out of their book for the advancement of humankind. They live and breathe ecumenicalism. The unit padre might be a Catholic and you a Protestant, Jew, Buddhist, Muslim, or devout Atheist; he couldn’t care less. When your world is turned upside down by absolutely anything from a fight with the missus to a close mate dying in your arms, the Padre will be the first by your side. He is often as filthy, wet and tired as you are, but he’ll make a hot brew and listen to you pour your heart out. He has powers that other officers couldn’t even comprehend. He’ll shirtfront Generals if need be, to see a problem resolved. Anyone who says that they had no one to turn to with a problem whilst serving in the ADF is either ignorant or lying, and from personal experience, it is very hard to be ignorant of the existence of the Chaplain.

Bullying does exist in the ADF, like it exists in any other workplace. Sometimes there is a fine line between discipline from a superior and bullying. Sometimes there is a fine line between training and bullying. It is worse in training institutions because they are necessarily hard. Some examples of workplace bullying have led to suicide. That is tragic. To tar the whole ADF for the few and isolated instances where that has taken place is ignorant, inaccurate, unfair and just plain lazy.

An ABC interview about soldiers

Boy on a Bike has a link to this discussion on Counterpoint, an ABC Radio programme with Michael Duffy. John Farrell is the founder of Australia and New Zealand Defender, a magazine that follows Australian soldiers throughout the spectrum of military operations and exercises. It is an interesting conversation. Duffy displays some of the tired old cliché beliefs about the military and the US, but to his credit, does actually ask some engaging questions and tries to get his head around what Farrell is telling him. I’m not completely sold on Farrell’s point about soldiers enlisting to seek adventure, but otherwise he seems to have a good handle on what’s going on for a journalist and ex-reservist. He makes some very good points about Rules of Engagement (ROE), and their impact on operations, and about some of the environmental conditions that soldiers on operations deal with. Well worth a listen. h/t Boy on a Bike.

The importance of studying history

Over at Bolta’s, Andrew discusses an Op-Ed by New York Times columnist Frank Rich that accuses the McCain Campaign of pumping up “Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies”. Now, Bolta does a fair job of refuting these claims and then slips the quick ball on the inside to Michelle Malkin who storms through the middle and deals with the real Germany circa 1930’s campaign. Kae in the other hand is discussing the new Australian history curriculum over at Bloodnut Blog. How are these two issues related? In using the Weimar Republic to evoke an image of rampant hate fuelled rallies, Rich is demonstrating a poor understanding of what the Weimar Republic actually was and therefore invalidates his own point.

The Weimar Republic was the democratically elected government of post-war Germany. One of the new Republic’s first acts was to sign the Versailles Treaty, which accepted responsibility for the First World War, which led to the disarmament of Germany, and the acceptance of responsibility for the massive war reparations demanded by the allies. This led to the hyper-inflation and massive unemployment that gave the Nazi Party a fertile ground for their own rise to power which, coincidentally, saw the end of the Weimar Republic.

Rich has just used a cool sounding German word to push his point about the McCain/Palin rallies. This historical inaccuracy by a columnist for the New York Times proves how important a real understanding of history really is. History is all about cause and effect. To understand that there needs to be a chronological and fact based approach to teaching history. For students in the free west, that means a detailed and sequential study of the significant events and personalities that led to the society we enjoy today. That also means a significant European and specifically British bias, for the simple reason that the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and a host of other nations all owe their political freedoms to the evolution of British democracy and then the rise and fall of the British Empire.

For Australian students, that means studying British history from the fall of the Roman Empire, through the rise of the monarchy, the Magna Carta, the Reformation, the English Civil War, and the rise of the Empire. This leads straight into the American Revolution which created a need for another penal colony, hence New South Wales. At that point Australian history should be focussed on the opening of the Blue Mountains, exploration of the continent, the establishment of the colonies, the Gold Rush, the Shearer’s Strike, and the colonial wars abroad. None of this can be viewed in isolation though. The Royal Navy’s campaign against slavers, the American Civil War, and the Industrial Revolution all impacted on Australia’s development. When looking at the 20th Century, Australian students should study our involvement in both world wars, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency and Confrontation, the Vietnam War, East Timor and the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. Whilst students should know what Australians did in these major events, they cannot be studied in isolation. International factors drove Australia’s involvement, and so should be studied. That would include the inter-war period in Germany, the Weimar Republic, and the rise of National Socialism.

Hopefully then, no Australian student would confuse the Weimar with whatever it was that Rich was trying to say.

What bias? What conflict of interest?

The moderator for the Vice-Presidential Debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden has been named. Gwen Ifill will be the “impartial” moderator for the event. Michelle Malkin investigates her impartiality, particularly in light of the fact that she has a book due to be released on 20 Jan 09, coincidentally the date of the inauguration of the next POTUS, called The Breakthrough – Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Would the author of such a book have any vested interest in seeing Senator Obama reciting the oath of office? Is there any way that there could be the slightest perception of bias against Governor Palin?

Family Guy is Rude! :o

Foxtel is in trouble with the Australian Communications and Media Authority over an episode of Family Guy where the character “Death” has a sex with a dead girl. Way to keep up with the times! I’ve seen that episode at least four times, the first being several years ago. The scene in question is:

A) Animated
B) Not explicit
C) fucking old news!

Get a grip people. Foxtel don’t set the classification. If there was a problem with the episode, it should have been picked up when the program was originally classified, before it was aired. Why was that episode singled out? What about the one where Brian (the talking family dog) doesn’t pay his gambling debts and Stewie (a 1 y/o) beats him to within an inch of his life, shoots him, and sets him on fire? Or maybe they could whinge about the running gag that there is a predatory homosexual paedophile hunting Chris Griffin? If you are letting your kids watch Family Guy thinking that it is in any way good wholesome family entertainment, you’re a moron. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t let their kids watch it if that is the decision they make, but complaining about it afterwards is just weak. Make the decision and accept the consequences. I love Family Guy. That and American Dad are two of my favourite shows. Letting my kids watch it might be a different story. Sharpe Jr likes it, but then, to him it’s just bright colours on the screen. When he gets a bit older I might have to sacrifice it, but if I still choose to watch it with him in the room, that’s a decision I’ll make and I’ll live with the consequences. It is part of being a parent and being responsible for the upbringing of my child. Blaming someone else because I let him watch something a little risqué is abrogating that responsibility.