Reckoning time for ADF elite forces in Afghanistan

If members of Australia’s elite special forces have committed war crimes or atrocities in Afghanistan during our longest war, they deserve to face the full weight of the criminal justice system. The Brereton inquiry has dragged on far too long, since May 2016. As it has meandered towards its grim culmination, many reputations have been tarnished and the cohesion of our most capable military units has been ruptured by claims and counterclaims about serious criminal misconduct.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Some soldiers have faced trial by smear and innuendo. This must be resolved without further delay, in the interests of both justice and national security. Where appropriate, charges should be brought and trials ensue. There is no place in the armed forces of liberal democracies for war criminals.

Soldiers in such armies occupy a unique and invidious position. They are authorised to employ lethal force against their nation’s enemies. That is an onerous responsibility. They enter a contract of unlimited liability with the state. They forsake many liberties that their compatriots take for granted, while accepting that they may be required to die in the service of governments for which they did not vote, in wars they did not choose.

This sets them apart from the narcissistic, entitled culture that they are willing to pay the ultimate price to defend. Few would envy their responsibility. The murder of three Diggers by turncoat Afghan soldier Hekmatullah showed a snippet of the environment they faced.

Correspondingly, such responsibility demands that they embody the highest values of our nation. The soldier of a democracy is neither a mercenary nor a contract killer. National values and international law demand that our troops employ force with discretion and proportionality. Wantonly killing unarmed civilians or prisoners of war is illegal and immoral. It is now clear that the Morrison government expects the Brereton inquiry to reveal unacceptable conduct by some of our special forces in Afghanistan. Granted, in war there is no substitute for victory. But in defending our values we require that our troops not emulate those of our enemies. If any comfort is to be drawn from this tawdry saga, it is that men of considerable moral fibre have drawn a clear, bright line in the sand and provided evidence of atrocities to the Brereton inquiry. They have broken ranks from their band of brothers to heed the demands of their consciences.

Nor should we forget that the inquiry was instigated by a commander of special forces, Major General Jeff Sengelman. Doing so demanded moral courage and commendable integrity. It also was General Sengelman who commissioned a review in early 2016 by Canberra sociologist Samantha Crompvoets into the culture of special forces command that in turn prompted the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force investigation led by judge Paul Brereton. In 2018, leaked elements of Dr Crompvoets’s report alluded to a culture of impunity about the use of force, illicit drug use, and poisonous rivalries between the Special Air Service and Commando regiments.

Now, after interminable investigations and inquiries, the Chief of the Defence Force has belatedly appointed esteemed former naval officer and Anglican bishop Tom Frame to conduct yet another review into the culture of the special forces. This purportedly will go further than that of Dr Crompvoets in also examining the conduct of the senior ADF leadership and the strategic conduct of the war. Bishop Frame is a man of intellect and integrity. If there must be another inquiry, he is eminently qualified to lead it.

But what will this new inquiry achieve other than further disruption of our most capable land forces when our strategic environment has deteriorated rapidly? Now is the time for those who have allegedly committed crimes to face justice. It is also time for our political and military leaders to face their collective policy failures in the conduct of the Afghan war. Both the CDF and the current Chief of Army served in the Special Air Service Regiment. Both held key command appointments at crucial times during the conflict. Root-and-branch reform of their old unit is their job. They need to get on with it and not kick the can down the road until 2022 when they will have retired or will be approaching the end of their careers. To suggest Bishop Frame can seriously examine the absence of a coherent strategy for the war in Afghanistan is disingenuous. Too much was demanded of the special forces through multiple deployments because of government aversion to casualties among our conventional forces. As Ben Packham has reported, the mental toll of multiple deployments led to indifference to human life and contemptuous disregard for the laws of armed conflict. Responsibility for that parlous state of affairs lies with political and senior ADF leaders who had no clear strategic goals for our commitment other than to be seen as a reliable US ally.

Some of the leadership problems have been acknowledged by former defence ministers Brendan Nelson and Joel Fitzgibbon. The SAS, whose role traditionally had been stealthy insertion, surveillance and extraction, was used as a blunt instrument conducting strike missions against Taliban leadership targets.

Bishop Frame will not have the power to call those responsible to account. Now is the time for reckoning, not research.