Warning: this article describes institutionalised torture and abuse.
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https://theconversation.com/survival-sex-mob-justice-and-more-the-first-independent-study-of-abuse-in-the-australian-defence-force-is-damning-239522>
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Review: Warrior, Soldier, Brigand: Institutional Abuse within the Australian
Defence Force – Ben Wadham and James Connor (Melbourne University Press)
“Participants expected the costs of war, but they were not prepared for the
costs of service,” explain Ben Wadham and James Connor in their new book, the
first independent study of military institutional abuse in the Australian
Defence Force.
Warrior, Soldier, Brigand draws on interviews with nearly 70 survivors and
analyses every review and inquiry into military culture (35 in total) since the
Vietnam War.
It’s a harrowing account of more than a century of widespread institutional
abuse in Australia’s military forces. Brutality was systematically inflicted on
junior cadets, who were beaten, violated and humiliated under the rationale of
“bastardisation”. In a hypersexualised culture, misogyny and gender-based
violence was endemic. Women were in constant danger of sexual assault from
their peers and superiors. This abuse was often compounded by a “second
assault”, where victims were punished for reporting, with administrative abuse
and “mob justice”.
The terms “warrior, soldier, brigand”, which describe different military
identities, are contested (as the authors concede). The Brereton report, which
found “credible” information to implicate 25 current or former Australian
special forces personnel in the unlawful killing of 39 people in Afghanistan,
also found that alleged war criminals self-identified as “warrior heroes”.
But the authors don’t use these terms to make sense of their findings. They use
the key values they identify in Australian military culture: martial, fraternal
and exceptional. These values, they show, are twisted into an obsession with
violence, exclusivity and elitism within the Australian Defence Force.
The book begins by outlining the “character of military institutional abuse”,
before focusing on different kinds of abuse in three eras: bastardisation
(1969–87), gender-based violence (1987–96), and administrative abuse and
military justice reform (1996–2011). This violence, the authors write, serves
to maintain the military institution.
The final two chapters explore cultural reviews of the Australian Defence Force
from 2011 to 2022. They reveal how patterns of abuse continue to the present
day, as well as survivors’ experiences of abuse. The book ends by asking
whether an institution like the Australian Defence Force can act ethically in
the world."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
