Taking the ‘A’ out of SAS

They handed down the Brereton report today. It’s grim. Dozens of civilians and prisoners murdered. New unit members ‘blooded’ by being ordered to execute a prisoner. Slitting the throats of fourteen year old farm boys for suspected ‘Taliban sympathies’, putting their bodies in bags and dumping them in a river.

The report places nearly all the blame at NCO level or lower. The officers had no idea apparently. I guess military officers really are as stupid as everyone says. So multiply three wise monkeys by the number of soldiers in the Special Air Service hierarchy and you get the sort of command and control being exercised over Australia’s elite military units. The same ones that train the other elite forces in the region that keep featuring in war crimes allegations.

But I guess we have to draw the line somewhere, right? If we start implicating those who knew or should have known who can say where we should stop? The lieutenants? The majors? The major generals? What about the entire culture of the Australian Army that glorifies the SAS because it ‘has what it takes and does what it takes’? What about our national leaders? What about the broader Australian economy and culture that feeds off and feeds war, its glorification and its excuses?

What about us?

It’s a good thing the military is so good at whitewashing. Gotta get that responsibility under control before it spreads all over.