DevilsHoleApprentice

On 27/06/2020 at 2:20 AM, Jerry_Atrick said:

That may be the case, but this appears to be an excellent journalistic piece: https://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2020/one-last-mission/index.html

 

I am sure there is some sensationalism - there always is.. but it doesn't name a soldier other than the ex-soldier who is part of the feature.

 

It is probably behind a paywall.. I would recommend buying the paper for it, or you can try opening in a private browser.

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.

On 20/06/2020 at 1:13 PM, old man emu said:

As General George Patton told his troops, "A war is not won by you dying for your country. It's won by making the other bastard die for his."

 

It's extremely hard to avoid appling some "summary justice" when, as a person authorised to use physical force, up to and including deadly force, to calm down and play by the rules when you have just been fighting a belligerent person, copped a few painful hits yourself, then managed to control the person.  

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.