Australian soldiers do us proud

[mr friendly guy]

linky

There has been calm on the streets since the riot by Muslim protestors in Sydney almost two weeks ago, but it has not stopped inflammatory messages being sent or recirculated in cyber space.

Today the Islamic Council of New South Wales will ask police and the Defence Force to investigate what it says are concerning comments made on social media by serving and former defence personnel.

One Facebook page contains references to using machine guns and a sniper rifle on Muslims who took part in the riot.

The page belongs to an Australian who served in Afghanistan.

He and his friends are linked to the Royal Australian Regiment based in Townsville.

These were some of the comments left on the page:

Give me a M4 and send to Sydney and I'll do the dishes.

Could add a new meaning to clean up Australian day.

What about an SR-25? You could say some of those blokes look like farmers. Smile.

Mate, what I would given to drop the legs on a MAG 58, slap on a 500 round belt, adopt a stable firing position in the middle of the street and lay waste to every single one of those cancerous ****.

At least 20 people added that they liked what was being said.

And on the day of the Sydney protests, these comments were left:

The protests were triggered by a US film Innocence of Muslims, portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a womaniser and a paedophile.
Um, they are. And how many of these Muslims weren't born in Australia? How many have read the Koran or been to Mecca?
And a sign said, 'behead all those who insult the Prophet'. I know what I'm doing this week - getting my gun licence.

I'm getting one too.

Cronulla round two.

I was going to say Cronulla, ha ha.

I wonder if I could buy a flame thrower legally.

Some of the men making the comments have photos of themselves in uniform, including one person who has a variety of pictures of himself holding different machine guns.

Another of the men appears in a helicopter pilot's uniform.

A simple search reveals photos of them on the Australian Defence Force's public website or in Townsville media either during or after serving in Afghanistan.

Several Muslim organisations, including the Islamic Council of New South Wales, have received links to the Facebook page.

The council's chairman, Khaled Sukkarieh, says he hopes the Facebook comments are just rants.

"We would be very concerned if former of current personnel of the ADF held such views, especially if they have served in Muslim countries or are serving in Muslim countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan," he said.

"We would hope that these comments are just the ignorant rantings of a very small minority and not indicative of a big Islamophobic issue in the ADF."

The Australia Defence Association told AM in a statement that if these men are serving members of the ADF they will have breached regulations about the responsible use of social media.

It says a second rule could have also been breached which is one of common sense, saying: "You don't make the diggers' life on the frontline harder by making stupid comments."

In a statement to AM, the Defence Department says it was not aware of the Facebook page in question but it is now looking into it.

[weemadando]

B b b b but b but the diggers, the ANZAC myth, noble and proud unassailable bastions of our national identity...

[Lonestar]

It's a common phenomena with troops that server in muslim countries. Something something familarity breeds contempt.

[weemadando]

If John Howard was still PM this would never have happened.

[thejester]

B b b b but b but the diggers, the ANZAC myth, noble and proud unassailable bastions of our national identity...

Man that's pretty ironic - this is only a story because these guys are soldiers. Change them to public servants and no one gives a shit.

[Hillary]

So the military employ some people who are racist thugs - this surely can't come as a shock to anyone.

Man that's pretty ironic - this is only a story because these guys are soldiers. Change them to public servants and no one gives a shit.

Really? I can't speak for Australia, but over here in the UK the press would be gunning for anyone in the public sector who had posted stuff like this on the net.

[weemadando]

Yeah, public servants would have been out on their arse with the Minister's of their departments running to find a camera to shout angrily at about the disrespect for the institution etc.

[Irbis]

I know what I'm doing this week - getting my gun licence.

B-b-but, legal guns are only ever used in lawful way...!

[KhorneFlakes]

As usual, our pitiful, pitiful excuse for an army demonstrates that Australia is filled with *mostly* idiots, bigots, and racists. Sometimes a combination of all three.

On the serious side, given how much crap I've seen come out of the army, I'm starting to think that we don't even actually have a functioning army at all, and instead BIG ARMEE recruits random people and tells to them to do stuff and look like they're important.

Our "army" is a fucking joke, and anyone who genuinely believes otherwise has some splaining' to do.

[tim31]

What battalion were you in Khorne?

[KhorneFlakes]

Sorry, I must of confused you. No, I'm not in the army, but I used to have a relative who served in the army. Don't remember much, I wasn't as interested in military stuff back then so I've forgotten a fair bit.

But for the most part, I remember quite clearly that he told was that while the chain of command is apparently decent enough, the grunts and ensigns and whatnot have tendencies towards jingoism, and are usually extremely racist as well. He also had a tendency to infodump a lot, so paying attention to him for longer than 20 minutes was hard, especially given that back then I had major problems with headaches.

I don't know if what he's stated is still the case, but that crap with the "rape gangs" and the crap with senior officers abusing cadets or whatever the news called it was still going on back than. He noted that a number of officers (both senior and junior) often ignored the abuse and rape gang stuff so long as it was quiet enough to avoid attention. There was also something else I remember, but it isn't clear.

That's what he told me, anyway. I'm going to go look for some more information about this, and I'll see if I can find what battalion he was in. Obviously, I need to find his name again, since like I said, this was I while ago - I was at least 13-14 when he actually had a habit of visiting. This is why I'm not too fond of things that I learn from my family - we're scattered all over Australia. Hell, my uncle and my aunt live at Ayer's Rock! And then I have other relatives, who due to both travel expenses and time that has passed between seeing them, that I've forgotten, despite having met them rather often.

I hope I find some decent stuff for this, too. I've noticed lately I seem to be forgetting information about stuff I've been looking at - I make an argument based on what I remember, and then I realize that I don't seem to actually remember as much as I think I do. I don't want to write verbal diarrhea and find that out only after someone calls out my obvious bullshit.