Peta Credlin: Moral courage from within the SAS shows we can still rely on heroes

While some of our military personnel may turn out to have had deep flaws as well as great courage, we should never doubt that there were heroes in Afghanistan, writes Peta Credlin.

Forgive me if I reject headlines that declare the Australian Army a national disgrace, or demand that the Australian War Memorial pack away its SAS display.

Nor am I at the other end of the spectrum that says there’s nothing to see here, move on. After all, the loudest voices for transparency have come from the inside the Special Forces, who are at the centre of these allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan.

Instead, what we owe everyone who has ever worn our country’s uniform and put their life on the line for us, and our values, is gratitude and perspective.

Australian Army soldiers travel through the desert in Uruzgan province during a Special Operations Task Group counterinsurgency operation. Picture: Department of Defence

For one thing, only 19 of the 3000-plus Special Forces operators deployed there have been referred for criminal investigation. That’s barely half of 1 per cent, with an overall ADF commitment of 39,000.

And for another, while the report by Justice Paul Brereton finds “credible information” for 23 incidents in which 39 insurgents were unlawfully killed, his report also concludes that “it does not follow from a finding … that there is credible information of a war crime that there will be a prosecution, let alone a conviction”.

Because the Afghanistan war was deemed an “internal conflict” rather than a war between nations, prisoners could only be held for a few days under a “catch and release” policy.

As the ANU’s Professor John Blaxland has said, this “saw familiar faces re-emerge multiple times”.

Under such circumstances, it’s not entirely surprising that a small number of troops took the law into their own hands. It doesn’t make it right. It is not an excuse. But it does help to give some context to what allegedly occurred.

When rumours first emerged that Australian Special Forces might have been guilty of atrocities in Afghanistan, it must have been tempting to have swept it under the carpet, on the basis of “what happens outside the wire, stays outside the wire”.

It is to the credit of our senior military commanders that they resolved to get to the bottom of the bad that our troops might have done, as well as the good in trying to defeat a vicious insurgency that killed its opponents without mercy and ruthlessly terrorised all who did not accept its version of Islam.

It’s quite right that prosecutors should now swiftly weigh the report’s findings and bring charges where they think crimes have been committed, and that the accused men are able to defend the claims against them. The dangers to our soldiers’ own lives, and the atrocities that were perpetrated against them, cannot justify atrocities in payback.

Australian soldiers have to be better than that. We can’t fight barbarism with barbarism, and could not have gone to Afghanistan to uphold the rule of law if we don’t hold ourselves to the same standard.

A soldier watches the valley during a joint Afghan-Australian operation to clear a Taliban insurgent stronghold. Picture: Department of Defence

But before we jump to adverse conclusions about our soldiers, let’s recall that these excesses only came to light because numerous serving members blew the whistle on those who had allegedly failed to live up to our country’s best ideals.

So while some of our military heroes may turn out to have had deep flaws as well as great courage, we should never doubt that there were heroes there, even in these killing fields — those whistleblowers whose courage turned out to be moral, as well as just physical.

And before we conclude that there’s something wrong with the “culture” of our Special Forces, let’s remember it’s this same culture that also produced these men of honour and moral courage.

For proud Special Forces soldiers, stripping them of their meritorious service unit citation is a heavy blow to morale. To judge the many by the alleged actions of a few isn’t the Australian way.

As a nation, we need the SAS Regiment now more than ever. Rather than obliterating the warrior culture that has made our Special Forces so widely admired and effective — or subjecting combat soldiers to even more institutional scrutiny, and even more complicated rules of engagement — what’s needed is weeding out anyone in uniform who might be tempted to think that they’re above the law and the rules don’t apply to them. And to ensure this review extends to the command ranks, not just those on the front line.

Australian Defence Force chief General Angus Campbell delivers the findings from the inquiry. Picture: Mick Tsikas/Getty Images

Then there’s the fact that the burden of actual fighting was borne by so few. It may have been the policy of only putting Special Forces into combat to minimise infantry casualties — rather than some over-the-top “warrior culture” — that turned some soldiers into killing machines, or at least men who’d allegedly lost touch with the ideals of honour that they had once signed on to uphold.

I might have worked for a Prime Minister at the end of this conflict, but it must be said this is where government bears a heavy responsibility. Some of those implicated had done five four-month-plus tours of duty, on hunter-killer missions most nights, and had become desensitised to killing.

Having never walked in their shoes, I am slow to condemn.

And, having visited Australia’s base in Afghanistan four times, I found much to commend, particularly when briefed on the tactics used by terrorist bombmakers and insurgents, and thus understanding better than any Canberra briefing note could tell me just what they encountered day in, day out.

In no way does that diminish my belief that the rule of law must be upheld. And the strongest demands that this must happen have come from inside the Special Forces.

PANICKED LOCKDOWNS MUST STOP NOW

You have to be kidding me? The South Australian Premier shut down his entire state on the back of fear that COVID had been transmitted on the surface of a pizza box — even though this had never happened anywhere else in the world.

Other than what one infected man told the contract tracing team, there was no evidence whatsoever.

The fact that it was a lie doesn’t diminish Marshall’s failure to do even basic due diligence before he locked almost 2 million people in their homes last week.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall announces restrictions would be eased in South Australia. Picture: Kelly Barnes/Getty Images

No one could even interrogate the chief medical officer’s claims at the time because she released nothing to back up her “expert advice”.

It’s an all too familiar pattern in this pandemic as voters have signed away their right to see the evidence to justify government decisions.

Clearly, SA’s contract tracing capability is a long way off the gold standard of NSW.

You might have thought watching the mess in Victoria that Marshall would have reinforced his systems, but as soon as I saw reports of people waiting up to 10 hours in the hot sun to get tested, I knew the work hadn’t been done to get SA ready to deal with an outbreak.

Now that we’ve had almost a year to understand this virus, we can’t just repeat the same kneejerk decisions made back in March when we knew so little.

Before shutting everything down again, we must take into account the impact of shutdowns on businesses, jobs and people’s mental health. Panicked lockdowns must end.

THUMBS UP: PM Scott Morrison for upgrading our defence relationship with Japan at a time of long-term tension with China. Values should always trump the dollar.

THUMBS DOWN: The Labor Party’s demand that compulsory superannuation is increased regardless of the hit to small business already doing it tough. If super goes up, wages won’t.

Originally published as Peta Credlin: Moral courage from within the SAS shows we can still rely on heroes