End of war for warrior Ben Roberts-Smith should be a concern for the army - Herald Sun

Australia's Victoria Cross recipients- Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith, Corporal Daniel Keighran and Keith Payne. The army needs to find meaningful post-combat positions for SAS veterans like Roberts-Smith, argues Ian McPhedran. Picture: Kym Smith Source: News Limited

NEWS that war hero Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith is leaving the SAS, along with many other elite special-forces operators, should sound alarm bells along the corridors of power in Canberra.

Governments have come to rely on the Special Air Service Regiment during the past 13 years and since the East Timor crisis in 1999 it has been the force of choice to carry the nation's problem solving burden.

From the Tampa stand-off to Antarctic fish poaching and full-scale wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the SAS has been at the forefront of the national interest.

Some SAS soldiers refer to the top Defence brass in Canberra as "permafrost". The mostly peacetime generals can't be shifted from their 1990s philosophy that is frozen solid in rewarding time servers rather than promoting battle hardened commanders.

As one officer said this week, "Command is a privilege, it is not a matter of waiting your turn".

There is a saying in the Australian Army that all the good guys left after Vietnam.

The same will also be said of Afghanistan if the current rate of departures continues.

Corporal Roberts-Smith is the highest profile SAS soldier to vote with his feet, but there is a long list of other equally skilled and impressive warriors who are walking out the front gate of Campbell Barracks in Perth.

Many believe that the army is reverting to a 1990s force and that those in charge, especially its chief Lieutenant General David Morrison who has never been in a shooting war, have no idea how to stop it.

There are two fights going on, one on the battlefield and one in Canberra and as one former top SAS operator put it, "We are not winning either."

The urgent challenge for the top brass is to harness the knowledge and experience of operational commanders and operators and to bring younger guys into the senior command tent before they get restless. They must also find a meaningful post-war role for the SAS.

If they fail then the sentiment expressed by one former top soldier will become a post-Afghanistan catch cry; "Why hang around to be treated like a fool."