The following justifications...
War is hell - it's always happened.
If you weren't there, you can't judge.
Command is blaming the NCOs.
What if you'd seen your mate killed etc etc.
Sorry - don't buy any of that in cases like this.
There were clearly a small number of people who knew exactly what they were doing, that it was very, very wrong - and they continued, repeatedly to do so.
It was out of the heat of battle.
25 operators out of 3,000 who rotated through.
One incident described last night as the most shameful in Australia's entire military history.
No-one is revealing detail at the moment because they don't want to compromise prosecutions - but I'm sure it will come out eventually, and when it does, it won't be pretty.
My own personal view... I suspect a forensic psychiatric analysis of some of the ringleaders might find that a few of them actually quite enjoy murder.
Last edited by tartare; 19th Nov 2020 at 21:48.