Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Who is protecting who?

The Australia Defence Force Academy (ADFA) is currently involved in a major scandal about the shocking treatment of a female cadet.

1. Unfortunately, there is a shocking history associated with treatment of military cadets by one another. It seems this has been consistently covered up. Here a few quotes from a chilling article Culture of abuse 20 years old in The Weekend Australian by a former cadet.
Working in criminal law, I regularly see people incarcerated for the same crimes committed against me at ADFA. However, the criminals in my case were never brought to trial but were given commissions and careers in the ADF [Australian Defence Forces]... 
[Government inquiries recommended new procedures. Hence] Despite more than a decade of resistance, ADFA was dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century. 
Despite the changes, no one took the time to say to anyone in the ADF that what happened at ADFA prior to 1998 was wrong. No one said to any of the graduates of ADFA: "What was done to you at ADFA was wrong, what you did to other cadets at ADFA was wrong."
2. No one seems to make the following comment about "consensual" intimate relations between unmarried cadets. On purely utilitarian grounds, I fail to see this is a good idea if you want to run a stable, unified, disciplined, and focused combat force.

3. Unfortunately, it seems there are people in military leadership who have pasts where they have committed such atrocities or covered up the actions of others. They lack credibility when they claim we must increase military spending. They also lack moral authority to fight "just wars" that are meant to protect us from "evil" enemies. Sometimes the enemy is within.

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