War crimes report: Vital light must not cast a shadow

There are wars that end in clear victory or defeat and then there is Australia’s experience in Afghanistan, the so-called graveyard of empires, though in reality more a nation of weary warriors caught in an almost endless loop of bitter conflicts.

I wrote that in December 2013 to mark the withdrawal of Australian Defence Force troops from the southern Afghan province after years of effort, blood and treasure spent on a mission that morphed along with the domestic political landscape of our coalition partners.

For six years, I flew in and out of Afghanistan, sometimes reporting from coalition forces embeds though more often from the battle-hardened perspective of a civilian population grappling with impossibly conflicting demands of the Taliban, the Islamic nationalists fighting to resume power, and coalition forces trying to stop them doing so.

When Australian troops finally pulled out of Oruzgan, there was no mistaking internal conflict among many soldiers and commanders who had worked hard to make a difference but were pleased to be done with this forever war even as they worried about what awaited Afghan soldiers and civilians left behind.

At least then they could point to bricks and mortar achievements across the impoverished province; Australian-built mosques and markets, sealed roads, an airport, girls’ schools and midwifery clinics — much of which has fallen into disrepair or disuse because of unrest and declining support from a shrivelled Australian aid budget.

In the end, the ADF’s main task in Oruzgan changed from reconstruction to training and mentoring Afghan Security Forces to ensure they could defend tenuous security gains made when NATO forces pulled out.

That was a qualified success at best given most districts beyond the provincial capital are now contested or under Taliban control.

Australia’s military effort in Afghanistan involved compromises that might not have been palatable to all Australians but they were considered important to our successes and justified as such.

Knowing who to trust was the hardest of all puzzles to solve in Afghanistan, a complex chess board of clan loyalties, shifting allegiances, ethnic, religious and sectarian tensions.

While most Australian forces trained Afghan police and soldiers and worked to win “hearts and minds” in villages, it was left mostly to the SAS to go deep “outside the wire” into Taliban territory, and what happened on those missions was closely guarded.

Spotting those superstars of the base was easy thanks to their swaggering self-identification via an unofficial “uniform” of bushy beard and plaid Keffiyah scarf.

That light is finally being cast on the darkest practices within our military is critical, but it should not cast a shadow on the dedication of thousands of serving men and women who left families behind to risk their lives in the hope of doing good.