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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Ben Smee

Arrest of national war hero Ben Roberts-Smith cuts deeply to core of Australian psyche

Ben Roberts-Smith Australia John Howard Tony Abbott Gina Rinehart Kerry Stokes
Queen Elizabeth greets then Corp Ben Roberts-Smith at Buckingham Palace on 15 November 2011, soon after he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Queen Elizabeth greets then Corp Ben Roberts-Smith at Buckingham Palace on 15 November 2011, soon after he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/AP

The former Australian prime minister, John Howard, this week described Victoria Cross recipient and accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith as the “modern personification of the Anzac tradition”.

The broad-shouldered, blue-eyed Roberts-Smith was the hero of the battle of Tizak in Afghanistan, for which his actions earned Australia’s highest military honour.

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