Commando breaks silence on Ben Roberts-Smith arrest

We want to go and do our work, but in the same sense we don't want to be scrutinised and imprisoned for it when we come home. I would bet my nuts that Ben and Oliver would both agree that what they're going through now was harder than any battle that they've ever fought, any selection process they've ever had to undertake or anything in their life that they've had to go up against. Right now would be the toughest challenge that they would be going through, without a doubt.

Dean Burgess is an ex-Special Forces operator who did two stints in Afghanistan and one stint in Iraq. He and his brothers thought the war was over when they came back to Australia, but for some, it hasn't finished yet.

Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires, so any country that's ever been there to try and destabilise or take them over. Going back as far as Alexander the Great, he held Afghanistan for one day and then gave it back and said, I don't want this place. Basically anybody that's gone there to fight a war is lost and we're no different. The terrain is extreme, the temperature is extreme, extremely hot, extremely cold in winter. There's nothing there that wants you to stay alive.

Everything is pretty much trying to kill you most of the time. I guess conventional warfare of the olden days, World War I, World War II and others, you've got a known enemy. World War II, we were fighting the Germans. They had uniforms, they had conventional lines. They knew who the enemy was and roughly where they were,

and the weapon systems they were using. It was, at large, it was brutal, but it was a lot more professional and a cleaner war. With insurgency and a lot of the stuff that happens in the Middle East, you don't really know from one minute to the next if they are your friend or they're your foe. Why I can say this is that they don't wear uniforms. They could be a bomb maker, a facilitator, money launderer, a local mullah who was sympathetic to the Taliban. Agriculturally in Afghanistan they're allowed to hold old 303 rifles

or Russian rifles. So just because somebody's holding a rifle doesn't necessarily mean that they're out to get you. There was an example I can give. One time we were moving into an area and an old mate drove past on a little posty bike and he had an AK-47 slung over his shoulder and at that time I was on the 50 cal machine gun on our car and I all but pulled the trigger and blew this guy in half purely because my target indication and my positive identification of a known enemy was right in front of me and yeah he almost got bit up.

Why didn't he?

What stopped you? What stopped me was he sort of waved us off, like he wasn't actually drawing a threat. I guess you could chalk that up to being super keen as a young thruster on his first trip with the Special Operations Unit. And I was just keen to get out

and do what I've been training to do. I wanted to get out and meet the bad guys and drop them. It's just about trying to maintain the rage all the time and be ready all the time. And when you're living and breathing it like I'm an only child. So when I got into the system, these guys are my brothers. Like I relied on them day in day out. You're on a daily renewable contract. And what that

meant to us was just because you're here doesn't mean you get to rest on your laurels. It does not mean that you've made it and you're better than everybody else now. You are here by virtue of your effort. We live in a meritocracy and if you don't uphold our beliefs and our standards you'll be otherwise moved on. For over 10 years since leaving the

service in 2013, Burgess has adhered to the unwritten code of the quiet professionals. But now he's emerged from the shadows, compelled by the public scrutiny surrounding the Special Forces communities. Case in point being Ben Robert Smith and Oliver Schultz and the approaching ANZAC Day.

Right now with Ben Robert Smith and Oliver Schultz, even though I didn't work with those boys at SASR, our deployments overlapped. So I have had interactions with both of those fellas during service and post service and I just would feel like a traitor to the Brotherhood if I didn't. So example, we go overseas and we're not going to leave anybody behind under no circumstances. So for me the war hasn't ended yet and I'm saying for me as a cumulative

title of all SF operators and others that Ben and Ollie are in a bit of a shit jam right now and I wouldn't feel right if I just sat and did nothing about it. I don't want to die wondering. My interactions with Ben have been four occasions. None of them were in combat. They were all, yeah. So they were all at 2K, Tarim Kaur, where we were in Afghanistan there, is where our base was at Camp Russell.

So he's a pretty dominant figure. It doesn't matter where you go. You try and do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in a gym with 120 kilo man, that's six foot five. You'll find out very quickly how small you are. He always gave time to the young diggers, including myself, as limited time it was we used to interact. He was always professional, upstanding. I don't know the guy

personally enough to comment on how he is behind the scenes, but I know him enough as a soldier to know that he was always good enough to give me his time. Did you ever tap him out? Never. I won't even lie. It's too early, man. For the past 10 years, my family and I have been subject to a campaign to convince Australians that I've acted improperly in my service in Afghanistan. As I've always maintained, I categorically deny all of these allegations.

And while I would have preferred these charges not be brought, I will be taking this opportunity to finally

clear my name.

One thing the Australian population probably don't realise is these actions that they're being accused of happened in 2012, so that's over 10 years ago. The investigation services have been bugging their cars, they'll bug their phones. They're treating them like terrorists, realistically. If we have a look at the juxtaposition

between the Bondi shooters and how much attention was given to those grubs, it was very limited and light on. For them to come out and say that they didn't have the funding to put eyes on these people that are on AZI watch lists,

but they can then turn around and spend $310 million on a witch hunt, my words, to achieve nothing except for a couple of arrests with convictions yet to be realised, it just doesn't make sense to me as a soldier, as an Australian, as a father of four. I know

Ben's got children and a family, I know Oliver's got children and a family. The effect that this investigation has had on both of those men, they are pretty much non-employable now. Not because an employer won't hire them, but just because of the media scrutiny and what it's done to them in society, you know, psychologically. It has affected me in the sense of distrust.

I get a number of young guys that want to join the army. And they ask me, you know, should we join up? What are your recommendations? And I said, well, look, man, like I'd honestly go and get a trade because the way Australia's heading right now, you know,

being a trade in the way Australia is heading right now, you know, being a trader in 10 years time with the housing crisis and the job shortages, you'll be a millionaire if you're a builder or a plumber or electrician. You're better off going doing that because you get to go home to your wife and your kids or your family every night because the government will send you overseas, they'll allow you to do your job that you've been training for for decades and then when you do your job, you get dragged through the coals and you face potential life imprisonment when you come home for doing your job that has come down from the highest levels of government.

People that are reading all this, people are forming their opinions, people are, you know, making decisions before there's even been any kind of trial.

What would you say to them kind of on this Anzac Day? Yeah I think the sentiment on Anzac Day will be I'm hoping it's not going to be a 50-50 split. I encourage everybody to get out and show your thanks to the veterans that have gone before us because we are all here because of the for the old boys and just because guys like myself have served in in specialised units doesn't mean anything to me personally. I'm here because of our forefathers that have gone before us. In the sense of Ben Robert Smith, there's going to be a lot of dissenters I'm sure. There's going to be a lot of, I guess, people that want him to be convicted.

But the best way you can support him and Oliver at the moment is by getting out, showing your respects and just being a good Aussie on Anzac Day. You know, don't be a quid, don't make it about yourself. Just remember what the day is about. And if you've got children, teach them. And if you've got children, teach them. Teach them why we're all here living in this country.