“While it would have been much easier to report that it was poor command and leadership that was primarily to blame for the events disclosed in this report, that would be a gross distortion,” the report said.
Such an allegation would also make it difficult for the shiny bums in Canberra to trod the well worn post uniform path into politics or onto boards of publicly listed companies.
The fact that they have already announced that SOTG will have their MUC withdrawn makes a mockery of ‘innocent until proven guilty’. If it’s proven that members of the Regiment are guilty of war crimes, punish them to the fullest extent. But the report even states (paraphrasing) that there was no evidence or misconduct amongst the Commando element, yet as they were as much a part of SOTG as the SASR were, they are also being unfairly punished by the withdrawal of the MUC. The reaction so far from the senior brass seems like nothing more than hanging out the troops to dry without the legal side taking its due course to appease the public and their political masters.