Andrew L. Urban.
In the matter of Ben Roberts-Smith … a historic reminder. News photos illustrating reports of unarmed pre-teen and teenage schoolchildren clambering out of sight onto Soviet tanks in Budapest in October 1956 went around the world – viral in today’s terms. The kids would open the hatch and drop Molotov cocktails into the cabin full of Soviet soldiers. Some had earlier acquired guns to threaten Soviet foot soldiers. Like their older “insurgent” friends who became a threat to the Soviet troops in Hungary … they were insurgents 24/7.
The Soviets couldn’t identify them in the streets; they couldn’t guess which kids walking around them posed a deadly threat. Not surprising, since the kids didn’t wear a uniform. They were not members of any army. And they were resourceful. some laid large dinner plates upside down along streets ahead of Soviet tanks, who feared mines …
But as the poor young Soviet soldiers would have told you, the kids were a real and present danger. They were legitimate targets as such. Unlike soldiers such as Ben Roberts-Smith, no Soviet soldiers were charged with war crimes.
That scenario is the same scenario that faced Australian soldiers in Afghanistan when the uniformed soldiers faced the un-uniformed Taliban insurgents – whether visibly armed or not.
Kids with gun, Budapest 1956