Managing editor Michelle Pini discusses the absurdity of David McBride's continued imprisonment, even though documents he leaked triggered Ben Roberts-Smith's arrest for alleged war crimes.
As each new day brings ever more distressing news, it’s difficult not to think about Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the lessons that the world appears not to have heeded.
In 1938, Time Magazine named Hitler "Man of the Year", with his image adorning its cover in January 1939 – the year in which he later invaded Poland. Many prominent people, including members of the British aristocracy and even Australia’s Robert Menzies, publicly expressed respect for Hitler's Nazi state.
With hindsight, apart from some crazed terrorists who still worship him, Hitler is now seen as a monstrous blight on history, with members of the Third Reich rightfully prosecuted for their genocidal crimes.
Today, a convicted felon, sexual predator and likely deranged figure – who also helped incite the Capitol Attack – sits in the White House, throwing around the might of the world’s largest military machine, threatening entire civilisations and spewing ugly words of hatred, with fingers perched perilously close to the nuclear codes, over which he has sole authority. Yet, the world, mostly, simply looks on.
All is fair in love and war, of course, as can be seen with the current disinterest in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Australian Government is not only silent to the madness, it even goes as far as to assist Trump’s America in its bullying ways.
Back in 2024, the Albanese Government brought home whistle-blower Julian Assange after 14 years of exile and imprisonment on foreign shores. This was a worthy and compassionate act, signalling that Australia, under the new Labor Government, would no longer sit idly by while innocent people were persecuted. It certainly did not look like a government that would support flagrant human rights violations.
At that time, for the most part, Independent Australia was the only Australian media outlet that continued to publicise his plight and advocate on Assange’s behalf. Shamefully, the majority of publications, both here and overseas, even those considered more progressive, simply profited from the information he shared with the world and for which he was persecuted. These outlets only finally came to Assange's defence when his release looked like a fait accompli — one from which they may further profit.
And today, just like their treatment of Assange, the silence is deafening from media outlets and commentators on the imprisonment of whistleblower and former military lawyer, David McBride. It is no surprise that few have publicly supported McBride even now, ten years after he blew the whistle on war crimes in Afghanistan by Australia’s elite forces — crimes such as the murder of unarmed civilians, including children, which were later substantiated by the Brereton Inquiry.
The Albanese Government – the one that brought Assange home – now supports the actions of dangerous bullies, such as Israel’s ethnic cleansing under Netanyahu and the general madness of Trump’s America. It does so through the AUKUS agreement, by ignoring the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza and the Israeli/U.S. aggression in Iran — even sending Australian troops to assist thislatest evil.
And it has prosecuted and imprisoned whistleblower David McBride for exposing war crimes in Afghanistan.
This week, Australia’s most highly decorated living soldier was also arrested. Ben Roberts-Smith faces five counts of the war crime of murder, allegedly committed in Afghanistan. Roberts-Smith's arrest would not have been possible were it not for evidential documents provided by David McBride, which led to the "Afghan Files". For his trouble, McBride continues to rot in gaol.
Roberts-Smith is just the second Australian Defence Force member to face a war crimes charge under Australian law.
But even as one of the highest-level prosecutions over these atrocities unfolds, McBride continues to live out his five-year and eight-month prison sentence, branded a criminal for publicising the evidence. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus did not intervene at McBride's trial in 2024.
With Roberts-Smith, however, the testimonials from the mainstream media and high-profile commentators have been both swift and dripping with praise.
Although the alleged crimes for which Roberts-Smith is facing prosecution are particularly heinous, it matters not, apparently, because he was the recipient of lots of shiny medals.
Notable commentators jumping to his defence include Tony Abbott, Michael McCormack and Bridget McKenzie, among others. Seven Network owner and billionaire Kerry Stokes funded Roberts-Smith's earlier defence (to the tune of around $30 million). Billionaire and Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart was also quick to ask that "compassion" be extended to Roberts-Smith, and questioned the "time and taxpayer money spent on his prosecution".
Highly decorated officers are a symbol of military superiority. They evoke bravery and righteousness, making governments look powerful, and filling impressionable minds with nationalistic pride and desire for the kind of glory that can only be obtained when soldiers do the bidding of governments, by travelling the world and killing people.
McBride, however, who risked his life to expose the truth? Well, that just makes everyone look bad. Just like Assange. Just like Bernard Collaery and Witness K. Just like Troy Stolz. And just like Tax Office whistleblower Richard Boyle, who will face trial in September.
Though David McBride's release of information about horrific war crimes by elite military personnel may well be considered "in the public interest" to the rest of us, his public interest defence failed to impress the ACT Supreme Court.
There are no effective protections for whistleblowers (despite the Public Interest Disclosure Act) because they expose the glaring and usually ugly problems within the whole system. Unless, of course, they hail from foreign systems, such as the Third Reich soldiers whose “following orders” defence was rejected at the Nuremberg trials.
The U.S.-Israeli military attacks on Iran, meanwhile, violate international law, specifically, breaching the UN Charter on the use of force, but no matter. The United States actually sanctions the International Criminal Court for attempting to investigate American war crimes. In addition, by virtue of the Bush Administration's "Hague Invasion Act" (American Servicemembers' Protection Act), which authorises the use of military force to free U.S. or U.S.-allied military personnel from attempts at prosecution for war crimes.
So, you know, try it — they dare ya.
This editorial was originally published as part of the Independent Australia weekly newsletter. Subscribe to IA to access all our work from as little as $1.15 per week and help power our journalism in 2026.
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