Blood Lust and Demigods: Behind an Australian Force’s Slaughter of Helpless Afghans (Published 2020)
The findings of a four-year military inquiry paint a brutal picture of a special forces culture of rewarding the killing of innocents and prisoners and methodically covering it up.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/world/australia/afghanistan-war-crimes.html
Commanders ordered junior soldiers to execute prisoners so they could record their first “kill,” then covered up their actions. Adolescents, farmers and other noncombatants were shot dead in circumstances clearly outside the heat of battle. Superior officers created such a godlike aura around themselves that troops dared not question them, even as 39 Afghans were unlawfully killed.