4 Field Regiment (SVN) 'Old Boys' Newsletter - February 2011 Edition

It is Christmas. David Hicks has his book for sale on the shelves, Gen Gillespie's charging $5 per can of beer to his troops in Afghanistan and three Australian Soldiers still have a charge of killing civilians in Afghanistan over their heads. Here is an open letter to Ms Lyn McDade and her military masters Houston and Gillespie. Ms Lyn McDade You are a dreamer and a very naive woman, your support of David Hicks a terrorist supporter confirms this. Hicks owe his life to the fact that the US paid $10,000 to the Afghan Northern Alliance for him; otherwise he would have died a very agonising death in Afghanistan. The US had every right to keep him to obtain intelligence from him which takes time and requires verification from other sources. Intelligence gathering is a complex process in which many cross referenced factors are taken into account. A jig saw of many pieces of which Hicks was one small part, put together the whole picture can save the lives of many. Hicks should have taken his treatment after his capture like a true soldier instead of bleating to his Daddy and the do gooders of the world. He and his father should be eternally grateful to the US Government for "buying" him and thus saving his life. I know when I was young and silly, playing soldiers in Southern Africa there was always at the back of your mind that if caught by the terrorist’s you would die an agonizing death. I am sorry that your sexual orientation is questioned and you are now being used as a political tool (as are these young Special Forces soldiers you have charged). It would be nice if all people of this world treated their fellow man with kindness and fairness. Unfortunately this is not so and therefore Governments recruit and train people to defend the country, carry out their countries Government wishes, extend their foreign policy or uphold treaty obligations. In your Masters and your eyes these men who have been doing the Governments bidding have broken some law. When this Law was introduced into the Australian Military were all the armed forces members lined up and told that from this day hence if you return fire upon an enemy and you accidentally kill an innocent bystander you can be charged with "murder", are new recruits to our armed forces told this ? That’s the “Law". A law that has been formulated by people who believe that everyone has the same set of values in this world as us Australians. I, as a person who for many years lived and worked in foreign countries know this is not true. The values that we have in Australia are completely different than those of many people in the world. Bribery, Corruption and Death are the norm for many people of the world, without our values. Bribery which is considered abhorrent by most Australians is a fact of life in many countries. A Moslem is taught (brainwashed) from an early age that to die fighting for Islam is a ticket for eternity in heaven, no Purgatory or half way stops, he is going straight to be with his God. A true Moslem has no fear of death in battle because they believe what they believe, Inshallah "If I die it is the will of God". A normal skeptical Australian whether he is an Atheist or Christian or other faith, will try to preserve his (or her) life to the very end. The Iranian Shia Moslem teenagers that died in the Iranian /Iraqi war in their hundreds of thousands sadly went to their deaths happily believing they were going to be with their God, with (strangely to us) their parents blessing. The Moslem who opened fire on our Australian troops with his AK that fateful night in Afghanistan did not care about himself or his family, he probably thought he had his ticket to Heaven by killing infidels or Inshallah (God has willed that I will die). The Australian troops who returned fire were trying to preserve their lives. I have been a Medic, Volunteer Ambulance driver and First Aider, for over 40 years and the first rule is DRABC which stands for Danger (look out for yourself and those around you) Response ( do you have a response from the casualty) Air (Airway etc, etc). It is a normal response for a person in our culture to preserve ones life, if you don't know this before you do a basic St John s Ambulance First Aid course, they instruct you on how to react. Danger look out for yourself first. These young Soldiers were trained to respond to being fired at by either returning fire or throwing a grenade. Unfortunately the Australian Military have a new set of Laws or rules for War made and enforced by people who have never been fired at and think that War is a game that has rules. There is only one rule that you need to know, "Look out for yourself