During their time in Afghanistan Australian special forces committed war crimes, murdering 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners of war and working together to cover it up. This was not a case of a few sociopaths killing in secret, but of utterly corrupt units who knew of, tolerated, and in some cases celebrated war crimes. As a result, when the Australian Defence Force finally acknowledged this last year, they stripped the relevant units of uit citations for their complicity. Now Australia's Defence Minister Peter Dutton wants them to be given back:
Today, Dutton told Nine Radio the decision would be reversed given the vast majority of ADF personnel did nothing wrong.But as the Brereton report makes clear, these people helped cover up war crimes, either actively or passively. And that should not be acceptable. By restoring these medals, Dutton - a man who has run concentration camps where torture, murder and rapes happened, and who is due his own trip to The Hague over them - is saying that it is acceptable. Which sounds an awful lot like war criminals covering for each other - just like they did in Afghanistan."Those people deserve our recognition, our praise, our honour, because many of them have lost mates," he said.
"Families this Anzac Day should proudly wear that medal in honour of their loved one who passed away in the service of this country."
