Afghan War 25th Anniversary: Australian Commemoration Focuses on Veterans, Former Special Forces Soldier on Trial Permitted to Attend, Afghans Absent from 'Freedom' Narrative

According to ABC News, the Australian War Memorial held a 25th anniversary commemoration of the Afghan War in Canberra on October 11, paying tribute to Australians who had served in Afghanistan. Prime Minister Albanese, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, and former prime ministers Howard, Abbott and Morrison attended. Among the attendees, the presence of former Special Air Service soldier and Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith was particularly conspicuous — he is facing five charges of war crime murder related to his Afghan deployment, and was permitted to travel to Canberra after the New South Wales District Court allowed his bail conditions to be modified. According to ABC News, Roberts-Smith has firmly denied the charges and said he plans to clear his name in court.

According to ABC News, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, Australia deployed forces to Afghanistan under the operational codename 'Operation Slipper', joining a multinational counterterrorism military effort. Over the following two decades, more than 35,000 Australians served in Afghanistan or in supporting roles in the Middle East; 47 Australian Defence Force personnel were killed and 263 wounded. ABC News reported that this was the longest war in Australian history.

The 'freedom' rhetoric at the commemoration served as the war's justification. According to ABC News, Albanese in his address invoked then-Prime Minister Howard's words from the time to explain Australia's motivation for joining the conflict: "If we leave this contest to America, we will end up having to ask them to defend our rights and the rights of all the others in the world who have a commitment to freedom." This framing wrapped the military intervention in the language of defending global 'freedom.'

However, the ceremony was largely silent on the war's outcome and consequences. According to ABC News, Australian War Memorial director Matt Anderson said in his address that "everyone who served there experienced a different Afghanistan," and stated that "whatever conclusions history ultimately reaches about the campaign itself, the part of the Afghan story that is clear to me is the success of the men and women who served there." ABC News's reporting showed that this definition, which confined 'success' strictly to the service personnel themselves, made no mention of the long-term consequences of the Western-led military operation for Afghan society and civilians, nor of the Taliban's return to power in 2021. Taken together with the composition of attendees and speakers described by ABC News, no Afghans or local representatives affected by the military intervention spoke at the ceremony.

The voices of families of the fallen filled part of this gap. According to ABC News, Jenny Poate, mother of Corporal Robert Poate — who was killed by an Afghan officer in 2012 — spoke at the ceremony. She said that families live every day hoping for the safe return of their partners, parents, children or siblings, and expressed that the empty seats left behind, and the grief filling those seats, have become part of those families' daily lives, including her own. Governor-General Sam Mostyn opened her address with condolences to the family of Corporal Brendan Hannam, who was killed in a training accident in the Northern Territory, and mentioned condolences sent by the Chair of the NATO Military Committee.

According to ABC News, the ceremony concluded with the laying of wreaths, the Ode of Remembrance, the Last Post and one minute of silence, closing with a Chinook helicopter flying overhead. A warm-up segment before the ceremony played video recordings of serving and former Australian Defence Force personnel sharing their Afghan service experiences. Anderson, quoting chaplain Rob Sutherland, said: "Perhaps we will measure success in Afghanistan differently." Confronted by the judgment of the twenty years since, this remark left a question that the ceremony itself did not answer.