Australian soldiers’ war crimes and the challenging pursuit of justice

The attempt to impose humanitarian rules on war is always bound to fall short, but the effort must be made nevertheless.

Australian Special Operations Task Groups Long Range Patrol Vehicles drive in across one of Afghanistan's desert regions in 2009. An Australian independent inquiry report in 2020 found credible evidence that 25 Australian Special Air Service soldiers murdered 39 Afghans.Photograph courtesy of Paul Berry of the Australian Department of Defence/NATO NATO International Security Assistance Force Public Affairs

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

June 5, 2023

LONDON, U.K.—“Guys just had this blood-lust. Psychos. Absolute psychos. And we bred them." So said an Australian soldier about the war crimes committed by the Australian Special Air Service when the scandal first broke in 2016. And the Australian Defence Force, bless its...

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