Blog Day 138 - Friday 20 November 2020

 Funny old day yesterday, two reports produced, one into the ADF Special Forces and the other into the Victoria Police.  One report was critical of one group that overstepped the mark and exceeded its boundaries and the other report was critical of the other group because it didn't do enough and let a situation escalate to the detriment of the public.

The first group subject an enquiry and report is the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) one of two special forces groups in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) the other being 2nd Commando Regiment (2CR).  During the period 2006 to 2013 the SASR was involved in 23 incidents in which 39 Afghanis were killed in what has been described as 'summary executions' as distinct from being killed in the "heat of battle".  Nineteen members of the ADF have been referred to the AFP for possible prosecution.

The SASR patrol groups that were allegedly responsible for these deaths were under the command of either Corporals or Sergeants who were generally senior and/or respected members of the regiment.  These men seemed to have formed a core group who were beyond the discipline of their own officers and had undue influence over the more junior members of their teams.

The Afghani's who were killed were prisoners of the Australians and possible handcuffed and presented no threat at the time of their execution and were most likely non combatants.  Some junior members of the patrols were encouraged to kill a prisoner as a "blooding" and to demonstrate a commitment and belonging to the group.  

That this happened many times over a period of time demonstrates issues with the leadership within the group and up the chain of command.  It also demonstrates issues with creating elite teams who consider themselves not bound by the rules that apply to others and the application of 'groupthink' in which all members of the team are bound by the rules of the team and nobody is prepared to step outside of the team.

It is amazing that a junior member of the patrol group would actually kill someone in cold blood.  It has been proven that it is difficult to get a soldier to kill someone even in the heat of battle.  American research in WW2 revealed that only about 20% of men in a rifle company actually fired their weapons or fired at a person in a firefight.  Changes in training and conditioning gradually raised these percentages to something like 50% in Korea and possibly up to 80% in Vietnam.  

One would assume that the kill rate or firing rate would be higher in special forces due to their training but we can assume that it would be difficult to get a soldier to kill an innocent handcuffed civilian.  Would it get easier after the first time?

A psychopath would have less compunction  over killing an innocent civilian and interestingly about 2% of the people in military forces are psychopathic and even more interesting most of these end up in special forces. 

In their defence, the SAS had been on incredibly high rotation to Afghanistan with many of the men doing numerous tours, they were also fighting an enemy that did not wear uniforms, so who was their enemy?  And there was weak and ineffective leadership that was aware of these events and did nothing about it.

At one time if a SAS trooper fired a shot their mission had failed.  In Vietnam the SAS was used for long range reconnaissance and observation. The same in with the British SAS in Northern Ireland, they would lay up for days in an observation post overlooking a farm building or border post, if they saw something of interest they would call in regular troops to deal with the matter and the enemy would be none the wiser of the existence of SAS troopers.  It looks like the mission profile of the SAS has changed since those days.

There are a couple of really good books on this subject; "Men Against Fire" by S L A Marshall (Slam to his mates) and "On Killing" by Lt Col Dave Grossman.  Might be worth re reading in light of all this.

The other report to be delivered yesterday was the Coroner's report into the 2017 Bourke Street rampage where a car driven by James Gargasoulas was driven up the footpath in Bourke Street killing 6 people and injuring many more.  The headline in today's Age says it all "Bourke St Report Damns Police".  Again this is one of those situations which we seem to be seeing a bit in this state where nobody was prepared to step up to the plate and take charge.  

The bail justice was criticised and there were discrepancies between his evidence to the enquiry and the police evidence.  If the bail justice had of had the full facts Gargasoulas probably wouldn't have been out on the street.  But neither the bail justice or the police have accepted responsibility for this.  The Coroner has suggested the police wear their cameras' in court so we know who is telling the truth.  Is swearing an oath no longer good enough?

Gargasoulas was running amok for about 12 hours prior to driving up Bourke street with only ineffectual attempts being made to stop him.  

The police on the ground were cautious about doing anything as they didn't want to be the sacrificial lamb if something went wrong.  There was confusion about how to deal with a high speed pursuit as there had been issues with previous police pursuits with some police being criticised and at least one officer charged over the outcome of a pursuit.  

The police following Gargasoulas failed to declare a "pursuit" which would have triggered a procedure and a pursuit controller but as this wasn't declared nobody took charge.  

These are the coroner's words "there was poor planning, a lack of assertive leadership and command control, a lack of adequate resources, inadequate radio communication, inflexible policies and misguided attempts to negotiate with Gargasoulos".  Sounds like she is talking about a police force in the 1930's not 2020!.

So, two examples where amongst other things poor management and lack of leadership led to consequences affecting many people at the time and into the future.

And while we are talking about leadership lets not forget the bungled hotel quarantine here in Victoria that nobody has still taken responsibility for.  Even though two senior public servants and one minister has resigned over this they still didn't accept responsibility.  And we are going to have another go at it shortly......God bless the good ship Victoria and all that sail in her!