Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

‘No different to Nazis’

The SAS’s reign of terror in Afghanistan
by
November 2021, no. 437

Rogue Forces: An explosive insiders’ account of Australian SAS war crimes in Afghanistan by Mark Willacy

Simon & Schuster, $35 pb, 406 pp

‘No different to Nazis’

The SAS’s reign of terror in Afghanistan
by
November 2021, no. 437
An Afghan compound burning during an SAS operation (photograph via Simon & Schuster)
An Afghan compound burning during an SAS operation (photograph via Simon & Schuster)

On 19 November 2020, the Chief of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, released the findings of the Brereton Report, so named for the New South Wales Supreme Court Judge and Reserve Major General Paul Brereton, who led the investigation into war crimes allegations against members of the Australian SAS. The report had been a long time coming – with good reason. Over four years, Brereton and his team scrutinised more than 20,000 documents, examined 25,000 images, and interviewed 423 individuals – Afghan victims and their families, eyewitnesses, whistleblowers, and the alleged perpetrators. The final eight-volume, three-part report came in at 3,251 pages. Everybody knew it would be bad, but few had anticipated quite how confronting its findings would be.

Kevin Foster reviews 'Rogue Forces: An explosive insiders’ account of Australian SAS war crimes in Afghanistan' by Mark Willacy

Rogue Forces: An explosive insiders’ account of Australian SAS war crimes in Afghanistan

by Mark Willacy

Simon & Schuster, $35 pb, 406 pp

From the New Issue

You May Also Like

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.