DevilsHoleApprentice

Yes, it was an "excellent journalistic piece", also a harrowing one. It is sad that such an excellent soldier had to suffer so much because of some bad apples in the bunch. Let's be clear about this, there are bad apples everywhere, who can be usually weeded out before they cause so much harm. (You might remember Julian Knight and the Hoddle Street massacre in Melbourne) Without trying to excuse the behaviour, those SAS soldiers were trained to the highest level of fitness, to overcome the enemy, the drive to win at all costs. In other words, I would say that they were "programmed" to be highly trained killers. Then the general public expects them to be "nice" killers? The conflict and stress in some of these soldiers heads would be enormous! I can see that some people could easily turn bad in that situation! Then we bring them home to a peaceful country and don't 'de-program" them but let them out on civvy street without any help whatsoever. No wonder that there is a high incidence of PTSD and suicide in the military.

To be able to win any engagement, you need to be as ruthless or even worse than your enemy, otherwise you need to pack up your bongos and leave the area of conflict. It reminds me of the worlds supposed greatest army getting pushed off a beach in Somalia because they could not fight as dirty as the enemy.