Australia's war crimes in Afghanistan show the cost of celebrating the military
Australia has fought alongside the United States in every major American military action of the last century, from World War I to the Middle East. And Canberra has spent billions on involvement in Afghanistan, after following Washington's lead, but we have no idea what it truly cost.
Some indication has been provided by reports of Australian troops' behaviour there, which have trickled out in recent years thanks to the work of journalists and whistle-blowers. The country's federal police last year raided the offices of the ABC, the national broadcaster, over a series of articles on precisely this topic.
At the time, managing director David Anderson said the raid was "an attempt to intimidate journalists for doing their jobs". He's not wrong.
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Then came the Brereton Report, released publicly on November 19. Even a bare-bones presentation of its findings is nauseating. There is evidence Australian soldiers committed war crimes in Afghanistan. There is "credible information" they murdered 39 innocent civilians, and cruelly treated another two - the latter a war crime involving the infliction of "severe physical or mental pain or suffering".
Redacted parts of the report by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry. Photo: AAP Image via Reuters alt=Redacted parts of the report by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry. Photo: AAP Image via Reuters
Most damningly, while these alleged incidents may have taken place amid Australia's longest war, none of them took place in the heat of battle. The victims, according to the report, were "non-combatants or no longer combatants", their murders covered up by techniques including planting weapons on bodies.
There were even instances in which new soldiers were egged on to shoot a prisoner to achieve their first kill, the "appalling practice known as blooding". Huge chunks of the 531-page report have been redacted, including a section described as "possibly the most disgraceful episode in Australia's military history".
For some, the report will be hard to reconcile with the deification of the Australian military and the Anzac spirit that is so inextricably intertwined with the country's national identity. Already the corrective has begun. There are articles telling us it was only a "small number of soldiers", and reminders that Australian military personnel have taken their lives as the fallout from these revelations clouds sky and heart - a prophylactic against a long overdue interrogation of the Anzac mythos.
The Australian Defence Force chief, General Angus Campbell, delivers the findings from an inquiry on war crimes in Afghanistan on November 19, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE alt=The Australian Defence Force chief, General Angus Campbell, delivers the findings from an inquiry on war crimes in Afghanistan on November 19, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE
This obsession with the military isn't just problematic, it creates the situation detailed at excruciating length in the report. We construct borders, then build weapons to preserve or tear down those constructs. We train humans to kill other humans, then wield outrage when killings somehow occur outside approved parameters.
"Lest we forget," we are told every year, in Australia and beyond. But when it comes to the legacy of conflicts, the rush to preserve memory makes it all too easy to blur the line between remembrance and celebration. The former is a solemn reminder of sacrifice, the forlorn hope that the horrors of the past will not be repeated; the latter is a commitment to our capacity as a species to visit violence upon one another, until we are all dust.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
