Soldiers' binge OK: Howard: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 06 Aug 2007: 3.
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He said the conduct was "abhorrent and inappropriate" and "not in the least" common, and the army would launch an inquiry to determine what action if any should be taken.
"Let's just wait until the Chief of Army and the military investigate the matter before we start jumping to conclusions and start to criticise the men who appear to have been involved," Dr [Brendan Nelson] said. "I suspect a lot of it is ... a bit of larrikin irreverence and I also suspect some of it has crossed the line and is quite inappropriate."
JOHN Howard and Brendan Nelson have defended the conduct of drunken soldiers in a video posted on internet site YouTube, sayingthe young men were just letting off steam.
The 3 1/2-minute video, titled My Experience in the Australian Army, posted by an ex-soldier but now removed from YouTube, shows a group of young men getting extremely drunk during a drinking game.
The soldiers, from Robertson Barracks in Darwin, are shown sculling alcohol through a long tube and then vomiting.
The brief appearance of someone in a Ku Klux Klan outfit has caused widespread comment but the Prime Minister said the soldiers were letting off "a bit of steam" and urged the public not to overreact.
"I have some understanding of the disposition of people in these situations to let off a bit of steam," Mr Howard said.
"I just think people can overreact with these things. People get into a lather and sweat and so on ... Let's be sensible about this."
Mr Howard said any discipline was a matter for the army.
"Let the military deal with those things in their own way," he said.
The Defence Minister said he would wait for the army's report into the incident.
"Let's just wait until the Chief of Army and the military investigate the matter before we start jumping to conclusions and start to criticise the men who appear to have been involved," Dr Nelson said. "I suspect a lot of it is ... a bit of larrikin irreverence and I also suspect some of it has crossed the line and is quite inappropriate."
Brigadier Craig Orme, commander of Darwin's 1st Brigade, said the video was shot by a now former member of the AustralianDefence Force about three years ago.
He said the conduct was "abhorrent and inappropriate" and "not in the least" common, and the army would launch an inquiry to determine what action if any should be taken.
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