‘Collateral murder in a militarised society‘, Overland, 22 June 2020
Subtle analysis of how the links between the uniformed military, particularly the SAS, arms manufacturers and exporters, and the commemoration industry are gradually making Australia more militarised.
These investigations [0f alleged SAS war crimes] are likely to lead to the conviction and punishment of individual soldiers, and to recommendations for improving transparency and cleaning up cultures of abuse and cover-ups throughout the chain of command. However, there are few signs that the broader questions such crimes raise for the society that produces them will be answered …
[T]he root of the problem lies in a growing culture of complacent militarism that is permeating Australian society as a whole. This is a sense that political, ideological, economic, and social issues within the country can and should be resolved with military solutions.
The author finds the reasons in our continuous involvement in overseas wars, our attempts to become a major seller of armaments, the ‘revolving door’ between senior political roles and work with arms manufacturers, arms manufacturer patronage of public institutions, excessive spending on the Anzac centenary, and arms manufacturer donations to the Australian War Memorial.
There is hope that some form of justice will be delivered to the Afghan victims of Australian war crimes. But to ensure that such deadly crimes are never committed in our name again, we must examine the role that creeping militarism plays in our society – and give priority to civil institutions that strengthen our resilience against the profiteers and architects of war.
For more on these subjects, use the Honest History site Search engine, with terms like ‘arms manufacturers’, ‘gunrunners’, and ‘weapons’.