Posted on 11/19/2020 1:56:59 PM PST by naturalman1975
The world has reacted with disgust and anger after a damning inquiry into Australian soldiers in Afghanistan exposed a disturbing litany of alleged war crimes.
The atrocities allegedly committed by Australian Special Air Service members were so vile that more than 50 pages in Thursday's report had to be redacted.
The Australian Defence Force report uncovered a staggering 39 unlawful killings, along with deceit and cover-ups, by 25 current or former SAS personnel.
The soldiers are accused of engaging in body count competitions and torturing civilians, as well as allegations of drug and alcohol abuse.
Major General Paul Brereton's investigation took four and a half years to scrutinise the conduct of special forces soldiers between 2005 and 2016.
The findings point to a culture of violence, mistreatment of war prisoners, and secrecy that allegedly covered up executions.
In light of what has been labelled the 'most shameful episode in Australia's military history', the SAS second squadron will be disbanded, and soldiers could be stripped of their medals and potentially be prosecuted for war crimes.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The accused men are each individually entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. But as a retired officer of the Australian Defence Force, I am deeply, deeply, troubled at what I am seeing. And I am not just getting my information from the media. I won't discuss what I am hearing elsewhere in detail, because I have no easy current way of knowing what is and isn't free to be made public, but it's enough for me to believe that 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.
How many of these “civilians” were in fact assisting the terroirsts?
Man. I swear. Nothing good comes out of Afghanistan. History shows no one wins there. No one.
This must be extremely difficult for you. It’s a terribly sad situation.
“The Australian Defense Force report uncovered a staggering 39 unlawful killings,...”
Let’s not confuse illegal with unnecessary or deserved.
Not having any knowledge myself, I’m remarking only that the period covered in the allegations is very close to 9-11, which precipitated their insertion. At the time, I know western anger burned much fiercer than it does today. I’m not stating that as an excuse, but as a caution that judging proximate actions under cooler light isn’t a fair standard.
I thought that maybe the unit had a habit making pictures of Mohammed by piss’n in the dirt in their operating areas.
Why aren’t there stories like this when it comes to the slaughtering of Christians in the Middle East or Africa?
In at least some cases that may be true.
But I am not going to pretend that the ADF is lily white and always gets it right. We need to be willing to say that sometimes people do the wrong thing.
There may be mitigating circumstances. There may be explanations.
But we need to keep an open mind to the bad as well as the good.
We know that a lot of it will turn out to be true.
But this is what happens when you unleash these kind of forces.
These guys aren’t trained to hold back. You know that.
The real crime is politicians who send them into these situations without thought. Those are people who are willfully ignorant of the effect of their action, or cynical and vile enough to plan to blame the people they sent into the fight.
I knew when Bush started this crap that we were going to have My Lai’s and other “incidents” coming out of it.
Doing such things shouldn’t be done lightly. Afghanistan may have seemed the most justified fight, but it did not need to continue for two decades. It’s Afghanistan. It’s never going to be suburban Sydney.
Most shameful episode? Hard to beat the shame of Gallipoli. Tens of thousands of Aussie were killed in a poorly selected, badly mis-managed battle which was probably the biggest mistake Churchill ever made.
Of course the hideous actions against the ASAS is discounted.
I’ve not been in the military, so I can only comment as a civilian observer. But how do you train warriors to fight and win, then put them up against a barbaric, implacable foe who will do anything to win...then NOT expect that some of that enemy ethos will rub off on your troops? That seems like an almost impossibly high standard to expect, especially after your troops have probably observed many enemy atrocities. Also, 39 incidents does not seem like a high number.
It reminds me of the political battles here in the States between Republicans and Democrats where the Republicans greatly prefer to be seen as gentlemanly losers rather than taking off the gloves and go after the demonic enemy tooth and nail. Republicans will not adopt the tactics of the vicious enemy and are therefore destined to lose again and again and again. The argument, of course, is that, if we adopt their most vile characteristics, we are no better than them.
“But how do you train warriors to fight and win, then put them up against a barbaric, implacable foe who will do anything to win...then NOT expect that some of that enemy ethos will rub off on your troops?”
Good point. They’re torturing, cutting off heads, and recruiting with it. I haven’t served either, but I agree, if one side won’t play by the rules of warfare (sucb, then they simply deserve whatever response they get.
Man. I swear. Nothing good comes out of Afghanistan. History shows no one wins there. No one.
Africa hands have a saying: Africa Wins Again. The same holds true for Afghanistan.
The “world” reacts with fury?
I bet 90% of the world doesn’t know a thing about this story. Did they mean some Muzzies react with fury?
And I certainly have strong reservations about learning any truth from media...Western media.
Thanks for bringing it to FR, though.
Sincerely
The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things.
If you don’t want troops to kill people and break things, don’t send them.
Send social workers instead.
Whoever sent them with rules of engagement that tied their hands behind their backs is the culprit here.
A Predator jockey sitting in A/C in Nevada drops a Hellfire on a “terrorist meeting” cum “traditional wedding party” in A-stan:
“A-Okay, good kills: it was approved by higher.”
An Aussie digger Troopie does a minor Breaker Morant: HANG HIM! NOT APPROVED BY HIGHER!
Churchill made a lot of doozies in his long military & political careers. What you get when amateurs want to play field marshal.
That’s why Trump, as you know, is so refreshing, to mega/maga millions of us.
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