‘Politicians are also to blame for this’, says ex-minister
AUSTRALIANS bestow a “kill and risk being killed” burden on its Special Forces and should not forget the sacrifice of all who have served over the apparent crimes of a few, honorary member of 2 Commando and former defence minister Brendan Nelson said.
Dr Nelson, who served as defence minister for two years until the 2007 election, appealed to the public to not lose sight of the fact troops get deployed overseas to maintain the freedoms and values we all enjoy.
But he also said he and other former and current politicians shoulder some burden too as the ones who deployed the troops time and time again.
The Brereton Inquiry found Special Forces, largely SAS and 2 Commando regiments, were the “tip of the spear” of the overall deployment, faced the most enemy contacts and received the most gallantry decorations.
But the inquiry findings concluded doing multiple deployments on a protracted basis in Afghanistan “detracted from their intended role in the conduct of irregular and unconventional operations, and contributed to a wavering moral compass, and to declining psychological health”.
“In our national reaction to this and as the legal process works through, the important thing for us as a nation is to make sure that we can continue to be a people that are worthy of the sacrifices that these men in Special Forces have made for us and continue to make,” Nelson said.
“I also think it is important that we as Australians, we have outsourced the responsibility to do this, to kill and risk being killed in certain circumstances, to these men who have carried an extremely heavy burden for our country.
“The finding against 25 for heinous breaches of the Laws of Armed Conflict now to be investigated should not blind us to all that has been given to us by them.
“And I’ve said all along, where do we as politicians line up in all of this, we are the ones that kept sending them, and I include myself in ‘the we’, and the chain of command?”