Letter

In response to 2025 in Review: Bullies and sycophants, cowardice on high, courage from below

The standard you walk past is the standard you accept

Re the contradictions Stuart Rees notes: How many Australians enjoyed the spectacle of Richard Marles standing alongside US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington this week. I guess he had to do it for the sake of Aukus, and to “preposition” (meaning what?) US troops in Australia.

But the US military has just been alleged by some senior US figures to be complicit in the murder of Colombian fisherman Alejandro Carranza, and the killing of 93 other civilians on the high seas including two survivors of a US Navy strike. Who gave the orders and the rules of engagement seems to be the subject of some contention. The former Admiral of Southcom Alvin Holsey, who appears to have resigned rather than follow orders which would result in either murder without trial or war crimes, seems to have channelled former Australian General Lt. David Morrison who said of military behaviour that “the standard that you walk past is the standard you accept”.

Kenneth Roth in The Guardian writes well on these alleged murders without trial.

— Geoffh Taylor from Borlu (Perth)