War Crimes in Afghanistan

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode contains references to extreme violence and content that some listeners may find disturbing.

The allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan against Australia's most decorated solider, Ben Roberts Smith, has rocked the country, and forced military's around the world to reckon with the disturbing reality of war crimes.

In this episode, James Patton Rogers is joined by Dr Patrick Bury, Senior Lecturer in Security at the University of Bath, former British army Captain having served in Afghanistan, and NATO analyst, to discuss the complex nature of who, what, how and why war crimes are committed.

Editor: Aidan Lonergan

Producer: Elena Guthrie

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Transcript

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0:00.0	War crimes are sadly nothing new and when it comes to the war in Afghanistan
0:04.4	there have been many incidents over the last two decades where the laws of war have been
0:08.6	broken. Yet over the last couple of months headlines around the world have been
0:12.2	plastered with allegations
0:13.3	that have shaken the Australian military and arguably tarnished its reputation.
0:18.0	Here of course I'm talking about the accusations against Ben Robert Smith, Australia's most decorated soldier.
0:24.2	The allegations against Robert Smith are exactly that.
0:27.1	They are allegations.
0:28.1	He has not been found guilty at any criminal proceedings.
0:31.2	A sentence that you will hear me repeat a lot in this episode.
0:34.0	But they shine a light on the issue, and it's what I wanted to explore further.
0:38.0	I'm your host, James Patton Rogers, this is Warfare,
0:41.0	and I'm thankful to my old friend and a friend of this podcast
0:43.8	Patrick Bury for joining us. Patrick was a captain in the British Army in the
0:47.5	infantry and he served in Afghanistan. He's now an associate professor at the
0:51.3	University of Bath in the UK where he works on important issues of conflict and security.
0:56.0	He's also author of Kulsine Hades. Afghanistan at its worst men at their best and it's from Patrick's own experience that we analyze this important topic,
1:05.3	which due to its very nature and its focus on war crimes means that this episode contains
1:10.4	references to extreme violence and content that some listeners may find disturbing.
1:27.0	Hi Patty, welcome back to Warfare. How you doing? I'm good, my name and are you?
1:28.5	Yeah, I'm good. It seems like an age ago since we last had you on the podcast and every time I get you on I've got you
1:34.7	talking about something different but that's just because you're an interesting chap obviously.
	...

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