Bombshells inbound. Got a lot to say about this, especially after many Aussie SOF members assured me for years that this was, "no big deal" and that, "nothing will come from this." JSOC and 22SAS may have their reckoning as well. More below: https://www.theage.com.au/national/blood-lust-killings-cover-ups-report-describes-australia-s-abu-ghraib-moment-20201027-p5692v.html

It is known in certain circles how and why Australian SAS operators began carrying hatchets on target. This article makes reference to the SOF culture of hero worship. SAS operators did exchanges with DEVGRU (SEAL Team Six) and saw them carrying Dan Winkler hatchets,

Which are used for war crimes. Monkey see, monkey do, guess what Aussie SAS guys are now carrying around in Afghanistan? This report due out appears spot on in regard to the rot with SOF and how it has spread and perpetuated itself.

I want to emphasis here: this is NOT that case of "a few bad apples." This is a systemic institutionalized normalization of war crimes that includes deliberate methodologies, and standard operating procedures used to commit the crimes and cover them up.

Quote: "The Crompvoets report records allegations made by multiple special forces insiders that war crimes were normalised among cliques of soldiers, while others who confronted the bad behaviour were marginalised."

"Comparisons were made to My Lai and Abu Ghraib,"

"If they didn't do it, they saw it. And if they didn't see it, they knew about it. If they knew about it, they probably were involved in covering it up and not letting it get back to Canberra," and this applies to certain US elements as well.

Not all DEVGRU operators were a part of this, but they all knew about it. There were missions where they gunned down entire families, new guy on the team starts puking his guts up. Another operator had a kill book full of trophy photos of civilians he murdered.

A lot of Rangers, enablers, and others also know about this stuff and kept quiet due to the immense social pressure that this article references. The thing all SOF guys fear more than death is failure but the one thing they fear even more than that is being ostracized by peers.

With the Aussies, some of the Commando units were super out in the open while in theater that they "don't take prisoners." This isn't the big secret that a lot of people would like to think, that a few bad apples slipped through the cracks.

"The gravity of these descriptions does not simply come from the details of particular events, it comes from the emphasis that most often accompanied these stories – 'it happened all the time'. They pointed to a disturbing regularity and normality."

And this, yeah: "concerns about the … diaspora of SOF alumni who are powerful, have a great deal to lose, and will no doubt fight to protect their personal reputation as well as the SF brand should they be implicated in any of the above".

I've commented before that 22SAS may have some things aired as a lot of it is on drone footage. They would tell the drone operators to "spin the ball" meaning rotate the camera off target so they could commit war crimes. Sometimes drone dudes said they did, but didn't.

Will be interesting to see if British secrecy laws effectively keep all of that quiet.

"Whatever we do, though, I can tell you the Brits and the US are far, far worse. I've watched our young guys stand by and hero worship what they were doing, salivating at how the US were torturing people. You just stand there and roll your eyes and wait for it to end."

This bit about "competition killing and blood lust" is also interesting. There was a Delta Force Squadron at one point engaging in killing for competition. Leadership had to be fired and replaced in order to crack down on the practise.