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Australian special forces deliberately murdered civilians

Bulletpoint

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I was shocked to read this today:


The inquiry - conducted by Major Gen Justice Paul Brereton - conducted interviews with more than 400 witnesses. It also found evidence that:
  • Junior soldiers were told to get their first kill by shooting prisoners, in a practice known as "blooding"
  • Weapons and other items were planted near Afghan bodies to cover up crimes
 
Some thoughts:

I would expect this kind of mentality from a Mexican crime gang, not from Australian special forces.

I don't like how these crimes are presented as sign of a "warrior culture". A real warrior culture would focus on bravery in battle, not cowardly murdering a defenceless prisoner and trying to hide the evidence.

Such crimes will further confirm extremist views that Western culture is morally corrupt and that terror is a valid response.

On the other hand, that these crimes are eventually brought to light so that justice can be done is a sign of the quality of Western culture.
 
War is a brutal, vicious business. Western culture has tried to civilize, and even romanticize it, but, at the end of the day, it's a bloodbath.

This is of course completely true. On the other hand, I believe it's important to maintain that there are some things that are plain wrong, also in war.
 
This is of course completely true. On the other hand, I believe it's important to maintain that there are some things that are plain wrong, also in war.
This is true, but it is the ideal to be striven for and unfortunately reality often falls short.
 

Possibly behind a paywall:


The following meanings were found by the judge to be substantially true:

  • Roberts-Smith murdered an unarmed and defenceless Afghan civilian, Ali Jan, in September 2012 by kicking him off a cliff and procuring the soldiers under his command to shoot him.
  • He broke the moral and legal rules of military engagement and is therefore a criminal.
  • He disgraced his country, Australia, and the Australian army by his conduct as a member of the SAS in Afghanistan.
  • He committed another murder on Easter Sunday, 2009, by pressuring a newly deployed and inexperienced SAS soldier to execute an elderly, unarmed Afghan in order to “blood the rookie”.
  • He committed a third murder by machine-gunning a man with a prosthetic leg on the Easter Sunday mission.
  • He was so callous and inhumane that he took the prosthetic leg back to Australia and encouraged his soldiers to use it as a novelty beer drinking vessel.
  • As deputy commander of the 2009 SAS patrol on Easter Sunday, he authorised the execution of an unarmed Afghan by a junior trooper in his patrol.
  • He bullied a fellow soldier, Person 1.
  • In 2010, he bashed an unarmed Afghan in the face with his fists and in the stomach with his knee and in so doing alarmed two patrol commanders to the extent that they ordered him to back off.
  • As patrol commander in 2012 he authorised the assault of an unarmed Afghan, who was being held in custody and posed no threat.
  • He assaulted an unarmed Afghan in 2012.
 
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