Arrest of national war hero Ben Roberts-Smith cuts deeply to core of Australian psyche

Criminal charges against the Victoria Cross recipient now on remand has deeply divided a nation whose identity is often entwined with the exploits of young men on foreign fieldsThe former Australian prime minister, John Howard, this week described Victoria Cross recipient and accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith as the “modern personification of the Anzac tradition”.The broad-shouldered, blue-eyed Roberts-Smith was the hero of the battle of Tizak in Afghanistan, for which his actions earned Australia’s highest military honour.