David McBride is the first Australian to be jailed over the war crimes allegations his disclosure helped expose.
    • welldraught@lemmy.ml
      ·
      6 months ago

      But he only exposed some specific soldiers right?(not the state) And why should china be the reference?

      • StalinIsMaiWaifu@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        6 months ago

        Carl marks is being sarcastic. A common anti-communist talking point is saying [communist country] is bad because they jail political dissidents when the west is just as willing

      • robinnn
        ·
        6 months ago

        He exposed the state by revealing info they covered it up.

  • Tangentism@lemmy.ml
    ·
    6 months ago

    McBride, 60, admits he gave troves of document to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), saying he was concerned about the attitudes of commanders and what he then thought was the "over-investigation" of troops, the court heard.

    But instead the information he provided underpinned a series of reports in 2017 called The Afghan Files, which gave unprecedented insight into the operations of Australia's elite special forces in Afghanistan, and contained allegations of war crimes.

    It seems he wasn't whistleblowing to expose the war crimes but because he felt troops were beyond overinvestigated!

    That is absolutely fucking hilarious!

    • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      6 months ago

      It seems he wasn't whistleblowing to expose the war crimes but because he felt troops were beyond overinvestigated!

      He was concerned that a couple grunts were going to get scapegoated for what a ton of absolute monsters were doing. Like Ben Roberts-Smith—decorated war hero who walks free today—uh, I need to spoiler/content warning this gorefest, said:

      CW: gore, murder, what the fuck

      “I shot that removed in the head. [witness name redacted] told me not to kill anyone on the last job. So I pulled out my 9mm, shot the removed in the side of the head, blew his brains out. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

      Yeah, that guy gets to walk free and get rich off public speaking engagements. McBride, though! Exposing that evil is malfeasance and needs to be PUNISHED!

      You dome some kids for fun, so you can jerk off to it later? Victoria's Cross material, national hero. Tell the public about it? CRIMINAL.

    • StalinIsMaiWaifu@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      6 months ago

      He was a defense lawyer for a couple of soldiers tried for war crimes, he did the leak because he was annoyed the grunts were being charged, but their officers who ordered/let the war crimes happen only saw court as a witness for the prosecution

    • welldraught@lemmy.ml
      ·
      6 months ago

      I have also read that his initial motivation was that of some soldiers being unfairly targeted. This however would only be problematic if one equates soldiers with war criminals. Source friendlyjordies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYYIVoCvsM Roughly around 17th minute

      australia really is a journalist hellhole. Also may I ask how is this hilarious? It seems to me that you take poor sources and draw brainless conclusions just as intended. But trying to make whistleblowers seem bad is always very interesting

      • theposterformerlyknownasgood
        ·
        6 months ago

        I don't know anything about this case, but friendlyjordies is literally claiming that the woke lefties are trying to throw this man in prison for opposing women's inclusion in the armed services and that they're too busy reporting on new genders to report on war crimes. Like that is literally what he is saying. There has got to be a better investigation on this.

    • robinnn
      ·
      6 months ago

      He's been outspokenly against the war against Afghanistan if you watch Boy Boy's video and was simply opposing what he thought was the scapegoating of troops to hide the crimes of others. Maybe what you're saying is hilarious because it's not true.