You’ve watched the films, read the books, and have an SAS poster on your wall. You finish school and join the army, desperate to become one of the best of the best. After years of exemplary service in the regular army, with hours spent doing extra training, you attempt to join the SAS.
The 21-day selection course is as demanding as you can possibly imagine — physically, emotionally and mentally shattering. Perhaps 20% get through. You’re one of the lucky ones.
You spend another 18 months training and then you get the call — deployment to Afghanistan. Finally, you can prove yourself.
The patrol commander is a decorated, charismatic senior NCO, you desperately need to impress him.
It is early on that you are “blooded” — the patrol commander tells you to shoot a prisoner. Get that first kill out of the way, don’t worry, we all do it.
Bang.
The Brereton report is as shocking as we were led to believe. A cadre of senior NCOs effectively led a murder racket, and were allowed to get away with it for years.
The report identifies the unique nature of the special forces, and a culture that became one of glorified warrior bloodlust, more akin to a gladiatorial arena then a professional military.
The overwhelming culture of the special forces meant that you either became one with the dominant group norm or were hounded out. Even now, despite everything, the report notes that some soldiers still can’t admit nor accept that there was wrongdoing, so encompassing is their misplaced loyalty.
While the report rightly focuses on the core group of wrongdoers (these are the ones who will be criminally investigated), it also clearly demonstrates a toxic culture that was condoned, enabled and recreated both at home and on deployment. The “us versus everyone else” belief led many soldiers and some officers to go along with activities that were designed to hide crimes.
In his address yesterday, defence chief Angus Campbell focused on culture, as if it were some sort of shield against the reality that our troops committed war crimes.
The idea that this was “all the fault of culture” is both a cop-out and correct. Culture frames actions, giving us a sense of what we should do and how. Yet culture does not exist as something separate; culture is what the soldiers and officers of the special forces did every day.
The report notes that unit and small-group loyalty, poor command, lack of oversight and a dearth of ways to report wrongdoing also contributed. It highlights a breakdown in command and respect between officers and corporals/sergeants (patrol commanders).
Farcically, it also suggests that there was a lack of education and knowledge around the laws of war, as if our most highly trained soldiers with in-theatre lawyers assisting them didn’t understand that shooting a prisoner is a crime.
What is most depressing is that we’ve seen these reasons for abuse and crimes before, identified by the defence force (ADF) itself. Since 1969 we’ve had numerous reports, inquiries and investigations. When they admit fault at all (and don’t fall back on the bad apples defence), they inevitably list the same causes: culture, followed by the same set of reasons spelled out in the Brereton report.
These same problems have also been identified by our allies. The US had My Lai, Abu Ghraib and their own crimes in Afghanistan. The Canadian Armed Forces has their experience in Somalia in 1993, where their elite airborne regiment was involved in a murder and subsequently disbanded.
The ADF knew what created the conditions for abuse and crimes, and have known for a long time. So why were the special forces allowed to get away with it? Where was the oversight? Why was there not sufficient due diligence to the set of risk factors that we know leads to crimes?
Creating a military fighting force always brings with it the risks of malfeasance. It’s about time the ADF took responsibility for not paying sufficient attention.
For anyone seeking help, Lifeline is on 13 11 14, Open Arms Veterans & Families Counselling is on 1800 011 046, and the ADF All-hours Support Line is on 1800 628 036.
Dr James Connor is with UNSW at the Australian Defence Force Academy and is an expert on military culture, scandal and abuse.
How can the ADF take responsibility for the culture described in the Brereton report? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column.
This is not just about the ADF, but all of us … & our so-called “shared values”.
When the Afghan soldier Hekmatullah killed three Australian soldiers in Afghanistan in 2012, sections of the Australian media labelled his actions as “murder”.
When 25 anonymous Australian Special Forces commandos stand accused of killing 39 Afghan civilians, men, women & children, their actions are characterised as “unlawful killings”.
In commenting on the report prepared by Justice Paul Brereton, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that “we need to ensure justice is truly served by illuminating the conduct of those who may have acted in ways that do not accord with the high standards expected of our ADF & those expectations held by the serving men & women of our ADF & their veterans’ community, past & present”.
Perhaps we should start by acknowledging that “murder” is “murder”, no matter who the assailants or their innocent victims might be?
What is the difference between dropping bombs on Dresden and shooting people ?
It is war whether we like it or not.
There is a difference between a war and a war crime. The WW2 bombing of Dresden was a war crime, shooting people who are armed and shooting at you is probably not a war crime.
True.
The war was morally unjustified and based on a lie. Why is this inconvenient truth not being addressed in this response? Those politicians that put the defence forces in Afghanistan under false pretext in the first place need to be condemned and brought to justice. To ignore this is to ignore the larger truth.
Correct. Our Politicians are too eager to please the USA, and join in their conflicts, despite the premise being based on questionable, from the beginning, premises, that eventually turned out to be outright lies.
Spot on. But not just because particular wars were morally and legally unjustified (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, ?Iran soon). The toxic acceptance that the West has a right to enter another country and shoot it and its people up, on whatever pretext. Can you imagine the world tolerating some brown or yellow people invading the US or UK or Australia and shooting us up because they thought our government was a threat?
Has there been any mention of any connection between these crimes in Afghanistan and the high rate of suicide of veterans?
and has there been any study of how our soldiers react to being sent to a pointless war? Imagine going to a war where the local innocents hate you, and each time you are re-sent the situation has got worse. Is there any feedback up the line in this situation?
Military Command and our Politicians, do not learn from previous encounters.
We saw what happened with veterans from the Vietnam War, but it seems with each War the situation gets worse.
Really important point Mark. There must be plenty of service personnel left seriously damaged by their Afghanistan experiences. (Which is not to in any way detract from the primary focus on the Australian war crimes).
Good question. I fancy I read somewhere that the incidence of PTSD is much higher in modern, dirty, asymmetric warfare, where the enemy is hidden amongst the civilian population (and often is the civilian population). Not knowing who is friend and who is foe apparently increases the constant threat and hyper-vigilance.
Perhaps, however, “Shell Shock” was around after WW1 and WW11 and it was not talked about.
Spot on. Our soldiers have been fighting a gorilla war in a foreign country for how long now. Talking about the high rate of suicide add to that the increasing incidents of PTSD.
The high level of suicide in our veterans, stems from the failure of the Army to recognize PTSD earlier enough.
The command structure also refuses to acknowledge that family members reporting symptoms are generally ignored.
There is a glaring omission. No mention has been made of the jingoistic, cowardly politicians who too readily commit young Australians to obscene conflicts in order to polish their electoral reputations of being tough and decisive. As a result they sent these young Australians into brutal, inhuman places and, then sent them back time and time again. Footballers need concussion checks to ensure no permanent damage from the game they play – did anyone not think that military people run a similar risk. Of course they did, but they did not care because it made them look good and the damage only became known years later.
True.
“It is early on that you are “blooded” — the patrol commander tells you to shoot a prisoner. Get that first kill out of the way, don’t worry, we all do it.”
Yeh we call that murder and blackmail in the rest of the world .. it’s how violence perpetrators coerce others to collude in the abuse and violence …
True.