ForumGarden

'What the f*** are you doing': Chaos over severed hands - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

One of the SAS officers in the patrol was Captain Andrew Hastie, now a federal Liberal MP.

The documents say that during the fighting in the southern province of Zabul, four insurgents were killed.

An SAS corporal searched the first body, finding a Makarov pistol.

The report of the defence inquiry into the matter says: “[He] then severed a single hand of the EKIA (enemy killed in action) with a scalpel.

He repeated the process with two other EKIAs, cutting off their right hands.

Australian troops are required to collect fingerprints and eye scans of every Taliban fighter who is killed, if it is possible to do so.

But the mutilation or mistreatment of the bodies of the dead is a violation of the laws of war.

The report says: “In his evidence (the SAS corporal) said that once again he had severed the hands of EKIAs 2 and 3 of his own volition, as there was time pressure to retrieve the biometric material and to get back to the helicopters for extraction.

“At this point in time patrol commander (a sergeant)...arrived at EKIA 3, and seeing the two hands on the ground, exclaimed words to the effect:

“What the f*** are you doing?






Not liking this at all.

magentaflame;1510802 wrote: 'What the f*** are you doing': Chaos over severed hands - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)



Not liking this at all.


Soldiers in combat are not always thinking logically. There is madness in the air, and it can be extremely infectious.

But yet the politicians who lie to start the war are fine updtanding people.

gmc;1510812 wrote: But yet the politicians who lie to start the war are fine updtanding people.


I don't recall writing anything that might suggest that conclusion.

gmc;1510812 wrote: But yet the politicians who lie to start the war are fine updtanding people.


Perhaps, if we could return to the standards of past eras, where a decision to start a war would mean that the adult children of politicians would be out there in the fray, they would think twice before voting to start wars.

Sorry, I wrote that without adequately remembering history.

Wandrin;1510822 wrote: Perhaps, if we could return to the standards of past eras, where a decision to start a war would mean that the adult children of politicians would be out there in the fray, they would think twice before voting to start wars.

Sorry, I wrote that without adequately remembering history.


The politicians themselves should be the first in the front line

I dont know about that.

I think it's been more dangerous (historically speaking) those who have been on the front line going into politics.

I'd still like to know how you go from fingerprint to entire hands.

magentaflame;1510839 wrote: I dont know about that.

I think it's been more dangerous (historically speaking) those who have been on the front line going into politics.

I'd still like to know how you go from fingerprint to entire hands.


Oh, I could see his logic.

"Bad guys coming - Gotta get these fingerprints - Wait, I can just take them with me, and get the prints on the ride home. - Oh, too heavy. I'll just take the hands. - Yeah, that'll work. What can go wrong?"

magentaflame;1510839 wrote: I dont know about that.

I think it's been more dangerous (historically speaking) those who have been on the front line going into politics.

I'd still like to know how you go from fingerprint to entire hands.


Certainly make them think twice before giving the orders

Remember the Vietnam war was all about body counts rather than winning ground? Seems to be the same kind of thinking here. They talk about terrorists and so forth but most of the soldiers/ citizens/ terrorists are everyday nobodys.

Just unsettling. Considering the fact that one of those soldiers implicated did indeed go into federal politics.