My theorizing was based largely on another comment in the thread: http://lesswrong.com/lw/cph/when_none_dare_urge_restraint_pt_2/6p0s

Also, the criteria that "all significant countries do it" strikes me as rather horrible reasoning. History is replete with examples of barbaric behaviors that were at one point considered perfectly normal, and often defended as a necessity without which the country would crumble.

I do have a suspicion that Australia might be less caught up in the heroic pedestal for war heroes, but all my Aussie friends are away for the weekend. Google did turn up a recent example of a high-profile hero being degenerated by a talk show, which suggests that the stigma is much lower there (but they were then forced to apologize, so there's still at least some stigma - but this is an actual decorated hero we're talking about).

Certainly, it would be hard for me to provide a citation for the claim "This country wouldn't rip apart a talk show host who said the same thing there", so I think we might have to just leave this one at intuitions (or, at least, I don't care enough to do more than bug my Aussie friends when they get back)