Let the Last Post be heard
ALLEGED WAR CRIMES
LET the Last Post sound through every valley and echo across every desert plain. Let it drift down every river and fly on every cloud. Let it settle on our souls and make home in our hearts for the true Anzac legend is dead. The shame will be felt by all Diggers who ever wore the rising sun on a slouch hat and served with honour, humanity and pride. The alleged actions of special forces in Afghanistan killing unarmed and civilian prisoners will forever resound through time and dishonour the Anzac legend. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember our true Anzac history with pride and respect, however the stain of the ASF actions will be a chapter we need to learn from and never repeat.
Lest we forget.
JUST ACCUSATIONS
Vyv Alomes Dodges Ferry
POLLY’S cartoon ( Mercury, November 20) is spot on. The nation does hold in high regard those who offer their service and their lives for their country but our politicians and Defence hierarchy are quick to abandon them.
Our PM has already contacted the Afghan President and expressed “sorrow”. Perhaps he should have expressed “concern”, since formal charges have yet to be laid and proven.
Major General Angus Campbell has been on the front foot and said “rules were broken, stories concocted, lies told and prisoners killed”. Again, an assumption of guilt, based on reports yet to be tested in court. Up to 19 current and former special forces soldiers may be proceeded against, but there is a suggestion as many as 3000 who served with the special forces between 2005 and 2016 could lose their Meritorious Unit Citation.
Angus Campbell attained the rank of Major General in 2013 and was responsible for Australian forces deployed in the Middle East, including Afghanistan, and received the Distinguished Service Cross for his command.
Garry Coombe Blackmans Bay
WHY AFGHANISTAN?
DOES anyone know why we have troops in Afghanistan? I can’t for the life of me remember Afghanistan doing anything bad to Australia. Taxpayers’ money is spent sending murderous goons to kill innocent people. An apology from the chief of the Australian Defence Force is not enough. If he was genuinely sorry he would pack up his tinpot army and leave Afghanistan.
Sid Abraham Molesworth
SENIOR OFFICERS
A SPECIAL investigator will prosecute Australian soldiers for alleged war crimes. I think we can all agree this is the right thing to do. However the use of the term war crimes elevates the level of prosecution to that mirroring The Hague. There are precedents in international law applying in The Hague. The Nuremberg trials used the precedent that the commander under whom the offences occurred was guilty even if he did not give a direct order. The other precedent is the Yamashita Principle applied after WWII and during The Hague investigations into war crimes in the Balkans. The Yamashita Principle states that the highest ranking officer is accountable for, and should be prosecuted and convicted of the crimes of every officer and soldier under his command, even if he/ she is unaware of that crime, or was aware and actually gave orders to stop it. Ignorance of the actions of his/ her subordinates and failed attempts to stop them are not a defence.
If a soldier is found to have committed a war crime in Afghanistan, the most senior commander in Afghanistan at that time, probably up the hierarchy to the Defence Force Chief, is as guilty.
The PM “vowed to bring justice to those who committed war crimes, and impose a new level of accountability on Defence as it implements cultural, organisational and leadership change”.
It’s correct to punish those who commit a crime, but a higher level of accountability should be applied to war crimes. If the PM is true to his word, senior officers should be stripped of awards if war crimes occurred on their watch. Rodney Cameron- Tucker
Sandy Bay
WHY WERE WE THERE?
BILL Handbury asked whether it is possible to win a war in a country like Afghanistan ( Talking Point, Mercury,
November 23). He makes good arguments about why our politicians have sent troops to Vietnam and Iraq. Australia has fought wars for mother England until World War II and for Uncle Sam after that. Surely, Australian interests cannot be the same as the US.
Ike Naqvi Tinderbox
UNIFORM THINKING
WITH the enemy wearing the same clothes as the citizens, it must be very difficult to make out just who is who. In every other war, each side is immediately identifiable by the uniform that they proudly wear. A civilian making a sudden move to, say, blow their nose, could be taken as a gun being drawn. Too late to wait to see if it is a handkerchief or a gun. Plus, how does one identify a possible suicide bomber? They all wear the same clothing. Bruce Reynolds
Lindisfarne
OVERSTEPPING THE MARK
WAR is a nasty business and some involved can overstep the mark of what is allowed by the rules of engagement as stipulated by the Geneva Convention. Given the stories that came home from the Pacific War about killing Japanese prisoners, and those from Vietnam about throwing prisoners out of helicopters, might lead us to query — not condone — what could have taken place in Afghanistan.
R. J. Giddings Pontville