JENI O’DOWD: The idea of reconstructing a war zone renders Ben Roberts-Smith case insane

It’s strange to watch a country try to make sense of a war, long after the war itself has faded from daily life.

The arrest of decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has done exactly that, revisiting allegations that are more than a decade old in an attempt to find an answer to something that was never clear to begin with.

Mr Roberts-Smith has been charged with multiple counts of war crime murder relating to incidents in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, allegations that go to the heart of his conduct as an SAS soldier during the war.

He denies the allegations, and the case will now be decided in criminal court, where the burden of proof must be beyond reasonable doubt.

But like many people I speak to, I just can’t get my head around a lot of things about this case.

We sent Australian soldiers into Afghanistan with a clear objective on paper and a far murkier and more dangerous reality on the ground.

They were in a country where the line between civilian and combatant could shift in an instant, where decisions were made under pressure most people will never experience, and where the consequences of getting it wrong were often death.

Now, years after the fact, a court is expected to reconstruct what occurred in a war zone between 2009 and 2012.

As Elon Musk said on X when he heard of the arrest: This sounds insane.

None of that removes the need for accountability, and nobody is above the law, nor should they be.

The allegations did not emerge overnight but followed years of investigation by Chris Masters, one of Australia’s best journalists and non-fiction authors.

But how, exactly, do you judge decisions made in war from the distance and comfort of peace?

How do you decide between right and wrong when the enemy, in this case, the Taliban, has been repeatedly accused by international human rights bodies of killings, repression and torture?

It is a fact that Afghan personnel and others presenting as allies killed Coalition troops.

It was the kind of war where you could think you were sharing a meal with a friendly local and end up dead by the time dessert was served.

So this is what I can’t reconcile: why is Ben Roberts-Smith, an elite soldier trained to kill and willing to put his life on the line for Australia in a country where the rules of warfare were blurred, now sitting in a jail cell?

Why were millions of dollars spent pursuing him for actions that took place in a war more than a decade ago?

Pauline Hanson — who likes to think she is the politician most in touch with what everyday Australians think — was among the first to speak out, criticising the handling of Mr Roberts-Smith’s arrest and the investigation’s monumental scale.

She was followed by former prime minister Tony Abbott, who cautioned against judging soldiers’ actions in war through a civilian lens.

Former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack went further, suggesting the case resembles a “smear campaign”, while some members of the defence community are concerned about the length of the process and questions of fairness.

And then came the revelation over the weekend by The Nightly’s Charlton Hart that the URL attached to the story that was published after his arrest suggested Nine’s Sydney Morning Herald story file was created by its author at least 12 hours before the arrest. Twelve hours.

Nine — the media outlet which has long pursued allegations against Roberts-Smith — was first with the arrest the next morning, and also published watermarked footage of Mr Roberts-Smith being marched from a plane by police.

Interesting timing.

Australia has already spent years examining these allegations, first aired in 2018. A civil court made findings on the balance of probabilities in 2023 after a case which lasted more than two years, and now, three years later, the matter has moved into the criminal arena.

Most of us like our narratives clean. Heroes or villains. Right or wrong. But Afghanistan was never that kind of war, and this will never be that kind of story.

High-profile support for Mr Roberts-Smith from conservative and veteran circles has been far louder than support for the arrest itself.

This case will ultimately be decided in a courtroom, but in much of the public debate, Mr Roberts-Smith has already won.