Iraq war veteran angry at memorial protest

Iraq war veteran angry at memorial protest
Northern Star Australia
Steve Zemek
7th Sep 2013

NO RESPECT:
Returned Iraq and East Timor veteran,
Ben Millmann, is disgusted that somebody
stuck an anti-war plaque on the
Nambour cenotaph.Brett Wortman

AN IRAQ war veteran said he felt like he had been "kicked in the guts" by anti-war protesters who hung a placard at the Nambour cenotaph.

Ben Millmann said he was disgusted by the sign which decried the wars waged by the "criminal" American governments in the Middle East.

He discovered the sign at Quota Park on Thursday morning and promptly tore it down.

Mr Millmann, who completed tours of East Timor in 2004 and Iraq in 2004-05, said his problem was not with the sentiment, but that it had been hung at a place of remembrance.

"It's one place where political opinion has no place," he said. "My problem is where it was placed. People have their right to free speech in a democracy.

"It was placed right underneath the part of the memorial that's for people who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and peacekeeping missions."

Mr Millmann, 29, said that the incident left his blood boiling.

He was left with psychological and physical injuries after being the victim of a car bombing in Baghdad on Australia Day in 2005.
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