War crimes

Originally posted by michelef ↑

My apologies if there is an existing thread.

My politics is centrist but I believe the current outcry re war crimes by our special forces soldiers in Afghanistan is an over-reaction nudged into the headlines by the ABC and now print media. I'm still an ABC watcher and listener. It is very easy to sit back and rake our special forces soldiers over the coals. I agree that they do that to themselves pretty well and yes they do need professional counselling(outside of the army) when they come home. Hell, all soldiers do if it comes to that. I don't mind my tax dollars paying for it. But the revelations we see from behind the camera and interviews swayed one sided from the start are viewed with our uneducated eyes. We can't possibly perceive the circumstances and stress that the SAS work under in the field. Column inches in the media and expert interviews don't feel the dust, the heat, the adrenalin, stress and exhaustion these guys operate under. They have people shooting them, they have IUD's to contend with and yes they have open-ended rules of engagement to a degree. It's this small sliver at the pointy end of rules of engagement that is in question and causing the current angst. Our elite soldiers navigate this pointy end in periods of time measured often in seconds. There is no time to sit down, have a coffee and come to a consensus. They do what they think is going to keep themselves alive and therefore keep us all safe.

An elite SAS team is like few others and is based on trust. They operate as if one and instinctively know how each member will react under given circumstances. They live and breathe as one. And they make it home, together, mostly. How they behave and react in the field is beyond our comprehension and frame of reference and I suggest that what happens in the field stays demeans the soldiers who fight for OUR collective freedom. Let the army deal with these matters internally and perhaps our returning soldiers need to be offered more counselling in light of PTSD. Some of the stuff they see will be with them forever.

Shit happens in war, deal with it.

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Shit happens in life too. But we don't just "deal with it" and let people get away with murder.

The issues around PTSD and counselling are of course valid but should not be conflated with crimes of cold-blooded murder, should they be proven. And your moralising "freedom" and "band of brothers" pap is just that.

Thank god we still have decent investigative media in this country and that people like you aren't in charge to sweep this kind of stuff under the rug.