Posted on 11/19/2020 3:58:35 AM PST by naturalman1975
The Special Air Service’s troubled 2 Squadron — in which Australia’s most decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, served — will be disbanded after being singled out amid the damning findings of the Afghanistan war crimes inquiry.
The heavily redacted Brereton report does not detail offences by soldiers from the squadron, known as the Bushrangers, but at least two of its Afghanistan veterans are likely to face prosecution as alleged war criminals.
Chief of Army Rick Burr told SASR members in Perth on Thursday that 2 Squadron — one of four in the regiment — would be “struck off” the Australian Army’s organisational structure in a symbolic dishonouring of the sub-unit.
Although the incidents outlined in the inquiry occurred across the regiment, the report has made it clear that there was a nexus of alleged serious criminal activities in 2 Squadron, SASR, at a point in time,” he said.
“This alleged grave misconduct has severely damaged our professional standing.
“Future generations will be reminded of this moment in our military history from the gap in our squadron numbering system,” Lieutenant General Burr said.
The 2 Squadron was raised in September 1964, saw its first service in Borneo and was later deployed to Vietnam.
It was heavily involved in Operation Slipper in Afghanistan, including in the fraught Oruzgan Province.
There will be a permanent record of the striking of the squadron title from the order of battle, and a new squadron — with a new name — will take its place.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
But as a retired officer of the Australian Defence Force, I am deeply, deeply, troubled at what I am seeing.
While there is always concern that enquiries of this sort can turn into a media driven witch hunt, in this case, I do believe there is plenty of fire to go along with the smoke.
This is a dark day in the history of the Australian Defence Force. It truly is.
Let justice be done though the heavens fall.
We all need to get the hell out of the corrupted cesspool that is Afghanistan.
Wars should not be this long. The whole theater is a currupt game corrupting military systems.
They did this to the airborne regiment after Somalia too, I served with guys who were there as I didn’t join till 99, there is always more than meets the eye and the top leadership is all too often willing to toss the ranks under the bus. Rwanda was the same thing. Disgraceful general and terrible leadership.
I don’t know much about this incident, but there’s always more to it.
I should specify Canadian airborne.
Lot of men tossed their berets on the parade square that day.
I certainly don’t think the problems here were only among front line personnel. It looks to me like there was systemic failure of leadership. The question is how high that went.
What are the men of 2 Squadron being charged with? War crimes is a very Euro Weenie stylish term. As far as I’m concerned , the troops that had and are serving in that cesspool, A- Stan, should be considered heroes. It’s the politicians and the Generals who should be taking the blame for what soldiers do after being in a God for shaken place for so long with no clear long term strategy.
It’s always the highest ranks. Once one makes it past captain and becomes a major, it all becomes political.
It’s been this way for a long time, so a lot of covering one’s backside happens up top. Rick Hiller was the only one in my memory worth any respect.
I don’t know where my sister regiment stands there these days, but here there are very strong rumours about the army helping make sure everyone gets the vaccine delivered to them. We are in troubled times indeed.
All the way to multiple PMs, as it went to multiple Presidents here. We shoukd gave been out of Afghanistan inside of 3 years.
What happened to bring this on?
“We should gave been out of Afghanistan inside of 3 years.”
I recall the rhetoric used to convince America we needed to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. One point being made was we had an exit strategy. Yah, right.
Other rhetoric of the day was the Twin Towers death total was equated to the Pearl Harbor attack on our nation. Pearl Harbor was done by a massive military force planned and executed by the Japanese government. I never understood the comparison. It was like the Afghan Air Force bombed the Twin Towers with one of Saddam’s invisible WMD’s which was why we need to invade their countries.
I recall ex-prez Clinton saying at that time we should go after the terrorists and not wage war. I hated the guy, but every now and then he did make sense, this was one of those times.
There is an argument that the Afghanistan government was knowingly housing OBL and crew. Fine. That’s a quick punitive expedition, not a two decade absurdity full of unneeded death and injury and cost for Americans.
As I say the accused men are entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and I'll do everything in my very limited power to see that they get that - it's not like I'm anybody important but I will be one of many watching who will raise merry hell if this turns into a political witch hunt, which it could. But at the same time, if any of the allegations are proven to be true, these are not minor matters that can be swept away. At least not all of them are.
If it’s as bad as you think it is, it’s much worse than what commandos did in Somalia.
You’re privy to more than any of us are there, please keep us posted. Even though my sister unit is 3RAR, I still served with others and shared a kinship.
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