Former soldier and federal MP Andrew Hastie: Our military operations in Afghanistan are ‘poorly conceived’

ONE of the country’s most high-profile ex-soldiers says Australia’s military operations in Afghanistan are “poorly conceived”, warning “people will be killed”.

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ONE of the country’s most high-profile former soldiers says Australia’s military operations in Afghanistan are “poorly conceived”, warning “people will be killed ... and often times they will be innocents”.

Disturbing details about life as a soldier in a modern war zone have been revealed by former SAS troop commander turned federal MP Andrew Hastie.

The Liberal politician has toured Afghanistan twice, and was in the Middle East as recently as February last year fighting terror group Islamic State.

Andrew Hastie, third from left in Afghanistan in 2013.

In explosive claims, Mr Hastie details the modern soldier’s plight, including:

● Being ordered to partner with local forces that commit war crimes by beating and execute ­prisoners, including the Afghanistan Provincial Police Response Company.

● Funding cuts that leaves troops acting like “beggars” for supplies.

● “Contradictory policies wring your mind and soul of every bit of moral and mental strength”.

The revelations come as Australian Defence Force insiders told The Daily Telegraph this week senior officers had raised “moral concerns” during a 2013 investigation about fighting alongside the “corrupt” and “unsafe” APPRC.

Mr Hastie’s revelations were made in a January 2014 essay he wrote before travelling to Oxford University as a guest of Scottish military historian Hew Strachan.

It was part of a scholarship application, and one of his references was former deputy PM John Anderson.

“It is not ideal when you feel the weight of national policy impact upon your immediate judgment and decisions in the field,” Mr Hastie wrote in the essay, which he gave exclusively to The Daily Telegraph.

“Australia had sought to minimise its military contribution at every turn in Afghanistan (raising the question of what we were trying to achieve).”

Mr Hastie, who was brought up in Sydney, said local Afghan coalition forces became “the enemy” during his 2013 tour of Afghanistan.

He writes in detail about the “highly charged” scenes during a mission in the Chora Valley, where he had to intervene to stop APPRC officers executing prisoners.

“We were confronted by three ­Afghan men — lean, hardy and defiant — on the receiving end of a brutal beating from the PPRC,” he said.

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, wife Ruth and baby Jonathan.

Andrew Hastie in Afghanistan in 2013.

“Punches, kicks, butt-strokes from rifles, head-stomping. I immediately moved over to the short and stocky Afghan commander, Usman, and told him to call his men off.

“Usman insisted: “They are Pakistani, commander, and they are bad. Therefore, let’s shoot them right here. Just say, ‘Yes’, and I’ll kill them.

“Usman’s men stood with jeering eyes, giggling at my seeming lack of nerve to kill in cold blood.

“Usman glared at me and made a sweeping motion across his throat.”

As tensions rose, the Australian solders were told the prisoners should be executed because “there is no room in the jails”.

The prisoners were not killed, thanks to Mr Hastie. “The men were detained, processed and released three days later,” he writes.

“Does anyone recognise the insanity of risking our lives to capture insurgents and then have them released because there wasn’t a functioning ­judicial system to support our efforts?”

At the end of his essay, Mr Hastie — who joined up after the September 11 terrorist attacks — wonders if Australia’s “initial aim in 2001 to disrupt al-Qaeda in Afghanistan morphed into something more insidious?”.

“The stakes are too high to allow the union of poorly conceived policy with military means,” he said.

“People will be killed — and often times they will be innocents.”

During his successful by-election campaign for the WA seat of Canning last year, it was revealed SAS troops under Mr Hastie’s command cut the hands off dead Taliban fighters for identification purposes. Mr Hastie was not with them at the time and was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Mr Anderson said last night it was crucial Defence officers such as Mr Hastie were encouraged to speak out honestly so that policy makers knew the repercussions of their decisions.

“When we ask others to put their lives on the line, whether its domestic or international, we have a moral obligation to understand what exactly we’re asking them to do,” he said.