Blooding soldiers (& politicians)

BBC:

Australian elite soldiers killed Afghan civilians, report finds

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES

There is "credible evidence" that Australian special forces unlawfully killed 39 people during the Afghan conflict, a long-awaited report has found.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has released findings from a four-year inquiry into misconduct by its forces.

The inquiry investigated 57 incidents and heard from more than 300 witnesses.

It had uncovered a "shameful record" of a "warrior culture" by some soldiers, ADF chief General Angus Campbell said.

Nineteen current or former soldiers should be investigated by police over the killings of "prisoners, farmers or civilians" between 2009 and 2013, the report found.

Afghanistan said it had been assured by Australia that it was committed to "ensuring justice".

What did the report find?

It said 25 serving or former soldiers had carried out crimes or been "accessories" to them. Most allegations concerned soldiers within the Special Air Service (SAS) elite unit.

Gen Campbell said none of the alleged killings could be "described as being in the heat of battle".

"None were alleged to have occurred in circumstances in which the intent of the perpetrator was unclear, confused or mistaken," he told reporters on Thursday.

"And every person spoken to by the inquiry thoroughly understood the law of armed conflict and the rules of engagement under which they operated."

Gen Campbell said the most alarming allegations concerned some SAS soldiers who allegedly "took the law into their own hands".

"The report notes that the distorted culture was embraced and amplified by some experienced, charismatic and influential non-commissioned officers and their proteges, who sought to fuse military excellence with ego, elitism and entitlement," he said.

The inquiry - by the inspector-general of the ADF - was conducted behind closed doors, meaning few details have been reported until now.

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kt notes:

Above penultimate paragraph in yellow highlight depicts a typical but fallacious Americanism which baffles me, because how could shooting unarmed peasants, farmers and civilians be considered as "fusing military excellence with ego, elitism and entitlement"?

Only sick people believe that.

Another sick ritual was to "blood" junior/inexperienced troops.

Talking about 'blooding' the inexperienced, I have dragged out a 2005 post about Tony Blair, an evil man who should have been tried for war crimes for his active part in supporting Bush in the Iraqi Invasion (see my post as follows):

September 21, 2005

The Hypocrisy of Tony Blair

Remember my earlier posting on Tony Blair’s terrible relishing of sending his troops to kill or be killed? It was in What Tony Blair Relishes is Sick.

Also, do you remember how he told probably the world’s most powerful media tycoon, Rubert Murdoch (Aussie turned American) that the BBC is anti-American?

Well, there’s more. The author of the reveal-all book, Lance Price, a former spin doctor in Tony Blair's staff, disclosed Blair’s tight relationship with Murdoch. In his book, he wrote:

"Apparently we've [Blair’s government] promised [Murdoch’s] News International we won't make any changes to our Europe policy without talking to them."

This was of course embarrassing to Blair as it showed him, a PM of a sovereign nation virtually kowtowing to a media tycoon.

According to British civil service rules, as a former member of Blair's staff, Price has to submit his book for censorship. When he did, the Brit government altered the above sentence to read less embarrassingly as:

"Apparently, News International are under the impression we won't make any changes without asking them"

... thus attempting to provide a completely different picture, one that Murdoch himself has assumed too much, and that Blair doesn’t necessarily agree with or would entertain his 'impression'.

Then Price drove the stake into Blair’s heart by showing how hypocritical Blair had been when the Brit PM sent his airmen or soldiers into bombing or shooting raids. Price wrote:

"I couldn't help but feeling that TB (Tony Blair) was relishing his first blooding as PM, sending the boys into action. Despite all the necessary stuff about taking action 'with a heavy heart', I think he feels it is part of his coming of age as a leader"

The British government panicked and censured this sentence to read:

"I couldn't help feeling that TB had mixed emotions about sending the boys into action. He said he did it with a 'heavy heart', but at the same time he must have known it would happen sometime and maybe it's part of his coming of age as a leader."

... lending a kinder mixed feelings for Blair, whereas Price's original sentence showed Blair to be a bloody chickenhawk hypocrite who relishes sending his troops into what he called 'first blooding' or an initiation of the mighty warlike General (sitting in comfy Dowing Street) into real combat, but combat engaged in by others or other people's children.

Guardian (Aus Ed) this morning reported that 2 Squadron SAS (Australia) will be disbanded for its disgraceful conduct.

I believe there is also a Malaysian Army battalion that was scrubbed (at least its Battalion designation) for disgrace but I am not sure whether it had been for cowardice or for mutiny.