the greens are totally bereft of decency. They hate Molan because he was competent enough to stop the legal boat trade. The Greens prefer the drownings and the flood of terrorism. Greens/abc are nothing but traitors of this nation. I suspect Steelie is married to Hanson Young.

SteeleRedux,

Since when have wars been waged by disobedience to orders from the high command.

A soldiers job is to follow orders, not disregard them.

It seems, in your world, the sensitivities of a pilot, take precedence over battle imperatives to win the war waged!

Your view as a pacifist is irrelevant on this subject!

Dear diver dan,

You wrote;

“Your view as a pacifist is irrelevant on this subject!”

If you come out swinging then you really shouldn't expect the moderate response. Oh well let's get on with it then.

Why are so many of you bloody pathetic old farts so determined to be wanna-be Yanks? I and many others I know have taken some pride in the fact that we aren't as warmongering as them and we that hold civilian lives at a greater premium. It has always been a point of difference and one that my father spoke of when he was serving.

During the Iraq War Australian pilots refused to carry out direct orders to drop their bomb on 40 occasions. The main reason was “there were fundamental differences between the US dominated headquarters and Australian pilots over what constituted a valid military target”.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/13/1078594618101.html

I am a proud Australian who supports the decisions of our pilots and the fact that our rules of engagement are of a higher standard than those of the Yanks.

You sir have instead pissed all over their efforts, mocked and derided our standards, and sided not with your countrymen but rather the armed forces of another. Why on earth don't you move.

Bloody disgrace.

Dear runner,

As you know I am not nor have I ever been a Green. I don't even think I have ever even given them my first preference. I am however a proud Australian who having read Nolan's book thought he did not reflect the values and ethics of this country during his time with the American military. Far from it. His actions should well have landed him in front of an international court. You don't give orders to repeatedly bomb houses full of civilians in order to kill one man without expecting some to take offence.

But you haven't read his book have you? You just think because he was in the military and bombing Muslims then he is god in your eyes, incapable of being challenged in any way. You are so often just a poor blind fool.

I see that you have attempted to rewrite the Geneva convention.

It is not a war crime to strike a military target in a civilian area, however, it is a war crime to deliberately base military assets within civilian areas as this will increase civilian casualties. For example Hamas basing artillery and amunition dumps in schools and hospitals was a war crime as it made the schools and hospitals ligitimate targets.

Similarly, because intelligence is not 100% accurate and situations change, all allied pilots in the Iraq war had the discretion to call off air strikes, and Yank pilots were also recorded in doing so.

Recently ISIS were happily massacring the populations of their captured territories. The reluctance of allied pilots to cause civilian casualties against ISIS lead to ISIS basing many of their assets within schools or hospitals and using populations en masse as shields leading to 1000s of civilian deaths. Not to attack ISIS would lead to more civilian casualties than doing so.

//Apparently the eminent General used social media to “share anti-Muslim clips posted by a far right group Britain First.//

Would these be the same videos that Trump apologised for sharing, which were shown to be fake?

If Trump has sufficient decency to apologise and Nolan doesn't, that really doesn't say great things about Nolan. It suggests that he has even less common decency than Trump, and isn't fit for any sort of public office.

From an article I read:

"The husband of Jo Cox – the Labour MP murdered by a far-right extremist who shouted “Britain first” – said people were used to Trump stoking outrage, but even so this was a “new low” for him. Brendan Cox said the issue was not about the diplomatic fallout, but that it legitimised hate.

In the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast, he said: “Providing a microphone to these types of views has a real impact. Hatred when you feed it has real costs – my family is just one example of that and there are many other examples in our society.” He argued that it “gives licence to people” to act on that hatred.

But he added that the response gave reason for optimism. “I think the reaction to it has been one of incredible unity – right across the political spectrum people were aghast.”

Well, right across the political spectrum except for a tiny little fringe of nutcases on the far right, who think that politicians promoting racist organisations isn't nearly as bad as journalists reporting the fact that they do.

Steele, you have one up one the old farts, you actually read Nolan's book, none have claimed such knowledge.

The Yanks have a long history of committing un-prosecuted war crimes against civilians. It started with their murderous acts against the Native Americans. The worse being the senseless attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic weapons in 1945. Australians lending "moral" support from the sidelines. The Americans murdered countless civilans in Vietnam, the My Lai Massacre of 500 innocent, men, women and children in 1968, was just one case.

The warmongers continue their barbarity to this day. Justified of course, remember that Geneva Convention, a licence to kill.

Seems Nolan had some trashy Neo-Nazi nonsense on his 'Facebook' page. Typical.