In response to the political and media vendetta being waged against former SAS soldier Ben Roberts Smith, VC, veteran advocate and former SAS Doctor Dan Mealey in July wrote to the new ADF Chief, Admiral David Johnston about his concerns.
To the Chief of the Australian Defence Force
Admiral David Johnston AC, RAN
Department of Defence
Russell Offices
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Dear Admiral Johnston,
There comes a moment in every military leader’s career when quiet deference to political winds and procedural inertia must yield to clarity, moral courage, and a principled defence of the truth. For you, and for the tri-service Chiefs of the Australian Defence Force, that moment is now.
I do not envy the position you now occupy. The legacy of your predecessor General Angus Campbell, is one of institutional failure — defined by silence, equivocation, and the betrayal of the very soldiers entrusted to his care. Under his watch, the Australian Defence Force became paralysed in the face of media-led condemnation, sacrificing its moral authority and allowing more than 2,000 veterans to end their own lives in a climate of abandonment and shame. We do not need more of the same. We need better. We need leadership that restores honour, courage, and loyalty — not just on the battlefield, but here at home, where the war for truth and justice is now being fought.
Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) is under siege — not by an armed enemy in the field, but by a determined domestic front of ideological hostility. Its assault weapons are not Kalashnikovs, but carefully curated headlines, courtroom theatrics, and reputational sabotage. The aggressor is a faction of the Australian media that has, with unnerving consistency and ideological fervour, declared war on our most elite soldiers. What has emerged is not legitimate investigative journalism, but a politically motivated campaign waged by activists masquerading as reporters — intent on dismantling the medals, morale, and operational legitimacy of our Special Forces.
The threat is grave. And your silence — along with that of your fellow Chiefs — is costing this nation dearly.
I urge you to read the article I published: “Spies, Lies, and Envy: How Our SASR Was Destroyed.”
It presents a detailed and disquieting exposé of how our military elite have been abandoned — first by internal cowardice and intrigue, and now by a broader civilian leadership unwilling to contest the false narratives being sown by a radicalised media.
The assault has been waged through a campaign of accusation without evidence, innuendo without consequence, and insinuation that bypasses every principle of natural justice. It has led to reputational annihilation for decorated soldiers such as Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, VC, MG — despite the fact that not a single war crimes charge has been laid against him nor his fellow SASR personnel.
And yet, what language is being used in the national press? “Disgraced war veteran.” “War criminal.” “Murderer.” These are not the conclusions of military courts. They are the fictions of columnists and television producers — none of whom have ever worn the uniform, never fired a shot in combat, and never navigated the ethics of lethal force in fluid theatres of war. The damage being done to the presumption of innocence, to public understanding of the brutal realities of asymmetric warfare, and to morale within the ADF is incalculable.
In the United Kingdom, the same ideological threats were gathering momentum. Like our own, UK veterans were being dragged through legal purgatory, many with PTSD, their names tarnished and their futures obliterated.
But the UK military leadership responded differently.
The Daily Mail ‘Stop The SAS Betrayal’ campaign has new backing from a former royal aide and SAS officer. Former royal aide and SAS officer Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a godfather to Prince George, has joined the call for an end to so-called “lawfare.” Read the full story here, and here .
In July 2025, as reported in the Daily Mail, Special Forces officers — including former leaders of the Special Air Service (SAS), the Special Boat Service (SBS) and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) associations— signed an unprecedented open letter condemning “a political witch-hunt” against their soldiers. They called out “malicious” legal pursuits by left-leaning ideologues and affirmed that “the pursuit of British troops through the courts years after events took place is damaging to morale, recruitment and retention.” They concluded unequivocally: “Enough is enough.”
“The current Director of Special Forces, who is responsible for SAS, SBS and SRR operations around the world, has also penned a furious letter on the same issue. Last night these unprecedented moves received emphatic support from former Commanding Officers (COs) of the SAS, leading defence voices and shadow ministers.” — Mark Nicol — Defence and Diplomacy Editor, Daily Mail.
This is leadership. This is solidarity. This is the calibre of moral courage in the last twenty years that has been fundamentally absent within the ADF.
In stark contrast to the powerful response of UK Special Forces leadership, the senior command of the ADF has remained inert — content to allow civilian defamation courts, operating outside military context, to define the ethics, legality, and fate of battlefield decisions. This abdication is unprecedented in our nation’s history. Your office has ceded the narrative space entirely, offering neither defence nor clarity. In so doing, your office has permitted the Australian public to be fed a distorted view of our soldiers as rogues and murderers, rather than men who kill at the behest of their country — often in the greyest moral terrain, where rules of engagement change by the second; where split-second decisions mean life or death.
Do you believe it is reasonable that soldiers should volunteer to kill in war, only to return home and pay millions of dollars to defend their actions in a civilian defamation court — without institutional support, without public backing, and in a vacuum of senior command solidarity?
This silence has demoralised the ranks. It has crippled recruitment and torpedoed retention. It has made clear to every prospective soldier that, should they one day face the enemy in combat, their gravest danger may not come from an insurgent with an IED — but from a journalist with a headline and a vendetta. What young Australian would now choose a life of military sacrifice, only to return home and be cannon fodder for a wealthy media class that profits handsomely from the demonisation of our veterans?
A treasonous narrative is taking root in the national psyche, fuelled by envy and opportunism, by ignorance and ideological spite. And in that moral vacuum — the silence of ADF leadership has been deafening.
Sir, with respect, it is time to speak. It is time to act. It is time for the ADF’s senior leadership to follow the example of your British counterparts in an unequivocal support of your SASR soldiers. This means issuing clear public statements condemning false and misleading characterisations of soldiers in the absence of criminal convictions. It means formally calling out the dangers of politicised litigation. It means ensuring legal, psychological, and moral support for all soldiers facing vexatious accusations. And it means defending the honour of those who have defended this country.
Above all, it means ending the shameful trend whereby suicide becomes the enduring solution for veterans haunted — not by what they did overseas — but by the betrayal they experienced when they came home.
Sir you once told this nation that “I am extremely proud of the men and women of the ADF. Our people are fundamental to all we can and must achieve, you are our capability.” If you believe that, then show it. The hour is late. The battlefield may have shifted from Kandahar to Canberra, but make no mistake: we are still at war. And your soldiers — our soldiers — are still under fire.
With respect,
Dr Daniel Mealey
Former Army Medical Officer
Veteran Advocate
Foreign wars are the last thing we needed as we should have learnt of the folly of going beyond self defence from our big losses in the last ones. I imagine the ADF would be happy to do the ‘welcome to our Abo world’ ceremony before heading off to die in trenches. It shouldn’t actually be called a battle anymore as a drone with a warhead flown by AI is not a man yet far more deadly and literally seeks and destroys autonomously blowing fragile bodies into chunky bits mercilessly.
Not very honourable but honour in wars is a very hard task in all the butchering.
It will be interesting to see how Russia will pay back their ‘grudge’ with our Ozzie governments after they supplied hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, APCs and tanks and God knows what else to the Ukros slaughter fest. That’s a whole lot of Russian dead despite the fact M1A1 tanks and bushmasters are obsolete junk. Air dropping Albo over Moscow in his golden speedos ‘for trial & gulag’ might be the only answer to make amends now. Scommo as well could do it.
Todays’s Germans are the subjugated arse-lickers and bootlickers of the Jews S A and the Zionist Gangster State of Israel!
To Cataclysmic Duck
The truth is that Russia tried three times to avoid going to war. But the US and Germany used the Minsk Agreement to arm Ukraine for a war they wanted.
The Special Operation as it is called, not a war could have been prevented by the removal of NATO build up on Ukraine’s border with Russia. It could have stopped in the first week had not Boris Johnson flown over with the express purpose of preventing any agreement. Three times I believe. The US doesn’t want the war to stop despite all the hoo ha.
Russia has continually been open to stopping the war, but won’t be caught out by the trickery of the West again by agreeing to a ceasefire.
The war will continue until the cause of the war is removed.
I am sure you would not overlook someone sitting on your boundary pointing a gun at you even if at the time it was not loaded.
The propaganda against Russia has been non stop because the US wants to break the country up into controllable areas. It has been trying to destroy Russia even while they were allies in the Second World War.
For the people, a terrible situation, but they are pawns in a much bigger EU and UK and US chess game. And what about the adrenochrome shipment seized from Ukraine? You know what is done to children to get that.
Australia has been suffering a lack of leadership in the military, political, judicial, religious, administration and public media for decades. I saw first hand, how bad this was in Vietnam, 1967-68. Flying medevacs back to Australia with soldiers injured by Australian land mines, dug up and relocated by Viet Cong, from the Australian base.
Now I can see a situation where Australia will be faced with a war on our continent. If China decides to form an OPEC version for Rare Earth Elements, with Australia, the USA will be reluctant to ignore the threat.
In addition the U Sucker (USUKA) Agreement, on nuclear submarines, was created because China had ballistic missile, nuclear submarines, operating in the Tonga Trench, less than 2,000 miles from Eastern Australian target cities.
The fact that China had built a submarine pen in a Pacific Island to support that operation was not widely known. After it was destroyed, China is now seeking a replacement in the Solomon Islands.
Can you imagine how our government, military and diplomatic “leaders” will respond these issues? Seeing Dan Andrews shaking hands with President Xi is not a good look.
Maybe it will turn out well for us, as they all belong to secret societies, who have our best interests at heart?
Yes, Sargent Schultz, and because of these US-American and Zionist destabilization processes in the middle-east and the world, the western world countries have to cope with the refugees from the wars. The Zionist George Soros and his Open Societies also encourage and finance the war-refugees to move into the Western World countries.
https://cove.army.gov.au/article/chief-army-symposium-2025-day-1
https://cove.army.gov.au/article/chief-army-symposium-2025-day-2
Indeed.
It’s a case of blaming it on the boogie. The extreme leftist activist media conveniently forget that the entire war in Iraq and Afghanistan (amoung others) are war crimes in themselves because they were launched on blatant lies. John Howard, Tony Blair and George Dubya have all admitted that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that was the premise that launched the Middle East campaign And that was obvious from the beginning. But they launched a war that destroyed millions of lives over there and over here. Only to have no winners and the soldiers come back injured, damaged and labelled as war criminals.
The real war criminals were the politicians and media that sent them as cannon fodder for a BS agenda that has backfired on all of us.
It’s them who deserve to be stripped of honours, their wealth, freedom and held in universal contempt. Not the soldiers and special forces.
No wonder nobody wants to enlist in the ADF! Why would you?
If it wasn’t for our political and media war criminals we could have all been living in peace for the last 40 years and we wouldn’t have all these “refugees” invading our countries with the violence our wars there taught them.
Further from Jones London interview,
“….I’m very proud of the work that we are doing in support of Ukraine from a small, far away nation that still has an eye on a rules-based global order and is frankly appalled by Russia’s aggression, by its illegal, immoral, unjust, unnecessary invasion of a sovereign country.”
But questions do need answering.
Are the people of “Ukraine” a sovereign Ukrainian people?
Has the Ukraine met the legal requirements of international standards and the UN.’s Charter to call itself an independent sovereign nation?
What letters of agreement with maps of border plans have been signed by both the Ukraine and surrounding countries since the breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic?
“JOURNALIST: Is the whole trip about Ukraine or will AUKUS come up in discussions?
VICE ADMIRAL JUSTIN JONES, CHIEF OF JOINT OPERATIONS: Well, all sorts of things come up in discussions, my purpose to be here is largely around Operation KUDU, as I said. Coalition of the Willing is secondary to that because most of the planning, as I said, we can do from Australia at this point of time, but my colleagues and I have very frank and candid discussions about all things operational, and certainly amongst four of the Five Eyes and most other global militaries that have a Chief of Joint Operations equivalent, we’re all running a global theatre as opposed to, say, the US system where there are combatant commanders for certain regions in their system.
JOURNALIST: And what about any further bushmasters? I know we’ve given 120, but Ukraine’s ambassador in Australia has said that most are being destroyed or shot down or broken down, it doesn’t actually know how many are left. Is that something we have possibility to give more of?
VICE ADMIRAL JUSTIN JONES, CHIEF OF JOINT OPERATIONS: Again, a great capability that has been used widely by Ukraine on the battlefield and it’s for government to determine.”
Recent quotes on the Australian Defence website attributable to the Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy:
“Australia stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine.”
“These modified M1A1 Abrams tanks will deliver more firepower and more mobility to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
And so they did.
“They meet a direct request from the Ukrainian Government and form part of Australia’s unwavering commitment to protect the global rules-based order.”
The global rules-based order has fostered corrupt practices by its more affluent member states, standing over and plundered third world resource rich countries, has brought about the multipolar world seen by developing nations as an opportunity to escape exploitation and debt slavery.
But will they escape the clutches of globalists?
https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/releases/2025-09-02/doorstop-interview-australian-high-commission-london
Australian soldiers deserve to be subjects of a witchhunt. They joined to fight in Jewish wars, and enforce covid isolation in hotels. They volunteered, they voted for it, and they deserve it. Dumb retards could stage a coup but they won’t so no sympathy for them.
As long as governments and their executive branch officers emote woke UN. terminology mimicked by top brass parroting cringe word resilience 🤮, and Slave media has a seat in the war room to discuss rather than report, what hope of fair and just society?
As Vice Admiral Justin Jones, the Chief of Joint Operations for the Australian Defence Force, commander of all Australian Defence Force Operations, domestic, regional, and global said in a recent interview in London, “……I’m a servant of that government.”
https://www.defence.gov.au/news-events/releases/2025-08-26/army-examines-its-role-society
Irene Laird said – “… I am ashamed of our weak as water Government that sends our soldiers into dangerous places, then holds them to account while they sit in their cushy offices…”
Hate to say it, Irene, but it’s not our “government”.
It’s a corporation, owned by foreign shareholders, and they neither work for us nor answer to us.
And they don’t give a shit. They really don’t. Never did, actually, and never will.
Hey folks,
The ADF is a circus, and it’s run by clowns. Always was for the most part. Always will be. You can’t “fix” a broken and terminally corrupt institution like the ADF, any more than you can rehabilitate a noxious weed-infested pasture undermined by a mega-colony of rabbits. The only solution is to dig it all up, burn the lot and start over.
During a crisis of purpose with excessive “attrition” and stubbornly lack-lustre recruitment some decades back, there was an internal campaign in the ADF where the upper management all done got religion and felt evangelically inspired to adopt “corporate speak” as if they’d all just been awarded honorary MBAs.
Lots of slogans flying around then, like “The personnel are the ADF’s most valuable asset”. That was a good one. They forgot to mention that the personnel are also the ADF’s most EXPENDABLE asset too, which is probably why they’re its most valuable asset when they’re pissing money down the latrine and treating them all like shit and grinding through them like chaff.
And of course, with this flurry of slick marketing and promotional videos and BS managerial dynamics, nothing changed. Nothing. Not at any level, anywhere from the highest to the lowest. Just a bunch of PR hype nourished by millions more wasted tax dollars, and maybe a few more juicy benefits and hefty allowances bestowed on the obscenely ridiculously bloated self-sanctifying senior uniformed and public service beauracracy called the “Australian Department of Defence”.
Because the ADF is a circus, folks, and it’s run by clowns. Always was. Always will be.
That’s why they chose an admiral who, (in Australia’s case) sail around in ships and never see any combat.
To the Editor: Could you please ensure that Admiral Johnston’s response (if there is one) is published in the Cairns News. However, I doubt that the ADF leadership, in their ivory towers, will unequivocally support what they view as the cannon-fodder, rank-and-file service members.
In the Marxist Culture War of the Revolution, it is the White Christian male who must be neutered and destroyed. He is absolutely Public Enemy No. 1. This is because only the White, Christian males who are strong in their faith and national identity will be able to lead and make Counter Revolution.
Femocrats, LGBTQ and trannies might be the Marxist identity cadre of the spearhead against the White Christian male, but the Marxist regime of a Western nation has an indispensable role to play through subversion of the institutions of the state.
Thus our UNIparty Marxist regime in Australia has been busy subverting the ADF which is replete with examples of the kind of White males they want to demoralise and neutralise.
That is how I read the unrelenting campaign for “reputational annihilation of decorated soldiers such as Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, VC, MG — despite the fact that not a single war crimes charge has been laid against him nor his fellow SASR personnel.”
A political traitor class which operates according to Marxist ideologies is responsible for making Cpl Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG into the Marxist poster boy of ‘toxic, white male’. One look at his photo should send the trannies running for their safe space. He and his ilk are being dealt with through many vectors of the Marxist regime.
regardless of roberts-smith character or if he was loved or hated, what has happened to him is not only unbelievable its completely disgusting!!
somehow everyone has forgotten that soldiers in war are there to KILL THE ENEMY , and when the whole population doesn’t want them there , by default they are all the enemy. this is more straightforward when the enemy wears an insignia uniform, but when those doing the shooting wear civilian clothes and hide amongst their population it is actually the enemy who are knowingly committing the war crimes by doing this and putting innocents at risk.
i can understand generals/polititans being dragged thru the coals for making “war crime” orders while sitting in meeting rooms planning offensives and what happened to soldiers on the ground who are dodging bullets being exempt from chain of responsibility under the geneva convention???
where was the trial of john howard for war crimes committed during the destruction of iraq and subsequent murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent iraqis?
i’ll repeat the role of the soldier is to KILL the enemy – so if they dont want them to KILL, then don’t send them there, dont send money to the other country either as thats even worse..War is hell..
a reminder that the unofficial motto of the US airborne rangers is “KILL THEM ALL, LET GOD SORT THEM OUT” –
I felt shame and anger when the main-stream media attacked this young soldier. I felt shame and disbelief when Angus Taylor did not defend him but also wanted to strip the medals from all of these soldiers under his command. I am ashamed of our weak as water Government that sends our soldiers into dangerous places, then holds them to account while they sit in their cushy offices. Drop the whole lot of them into the middle of a war-torn foreign country for 6 months, then give them the same treatment when and IF they make it home!
[…] Source link […]