by Juliana Byers | May 17, 2024 | Afghanistan, Military History, Modern Warfare, True Crime, War Crime
Author’s Note: This article discusses the deaths of civilians and non-combatants in war. I make a clear distinction between incidents resulting in collateral damage, and those in which civilians/non-combatants are killed as a result of reckless, indifferent or...
by Juliana Byers | May 3, 2024 | ANZAC Day, Australian History, Gallipoli, Military History, Political History, Social History, World War 1
Ah, taxes, one of the only two things they say are certain in this world, the other (of course) being death. So perhaps it is appropriate that it was recently revealed that a bunch of Victorian MPs, thirteen, to be exact, and one federal MP, used taxpayer funds to...
by Juliana Byers | Apr 26, 2024 | ANZAC Day, Australian History, Gallipoli, Memorials, Military History, Passchendaele, Post-1900, The Somme, World War 1
Today is the 25th of April, and the 109th anniversary of the catastrophic failure that was the Gallipoli invasion. Oops! Sorry Twitter-lynch mob, I meant today is the 109th anniversary of the greatest day in Australian history, where we became a nation, baptized in...
by Juliana Byers | Apr 14, 2024 | Australian History, Colonisation & Invasion, Indigenous Australia, Memorials, Military History, Museum, Pre-1900, Redcoats, Social History, The Australian Wars, True Crime, War Crime
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are warned that the following post contains references to colonial-era atrocities. The names of individuals who have died do not appear in this post. In February of 2023, the current chair of the Australian War Memorial...
by Juliana Byers | Apr 14, 2024 | Afghanistan, Military History, Modern Warfare, Recommended Reads
It is easier to consume stories of war long sanitised of personal suffering. After the cost of grief and the smell of death fades, we are left with the polished bones of valour and sacrifice. That other serious investment, the hurtful present, takes more from us....
by Juliana Byers | Apr 14, 2024 | Afghanistan, Military History, Modern Warfare, True Crime, War Crime, World History
In June 2023, I wrote a post about the then recent finding in what had been dubbed the “Defamation Trial of the Century”: Ben Roberts-Smith vs. Fairfaix Media Pty. Ltd. For those who need a refresh, Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG was a former corporal in the Australian...
