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Department of Defence: nowhere to hide : Comments
By Bruce Haigh, published 13/4/2011Stephen Smith has made the first moves to reverse a culture of impunity in the defence force given licence under John Howard.
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Who controls the military? This is an age-old question, raised for instance in the English Civil War. And for that matter in the American Civil War too. The military show time and again that they want to be a law unto themselves. But taxpayers for their salaries and for all the weaponry they use. Our only mechanism is parliamentary control, however imperfect. And public scrutiny. As usual, the media shed more heat than light.
As I understand it, we have private (sexual) conduct which has been broadcast to others. It's a bit like the cyberbullying which means that a bullied kid gets humiliated by seeing his suffering shown on the net. We might need new rules for these new situations.
And Bruce: I'm afraid that your passion gets you carried away. Proof-read your work before publishing it. There are examples of misplaced or omitted apostrophes. And many run-on sentences: sentences constructed by stringing clauses together with commas. It distracts from some high-quality thinking.
In all, a useful article, but would be improved by a good editor.