Did Australian Defence Forces commit any war crimes during the invasion of Iraq in 2003?

Question

I want to know if the ADF committed any SPECIFIC war crimes, not just the obvious one of aggressively invading another country...

Answer 1

Unlikely. Not only are the ADF soldiers very well trained and disiplined, there was not the situations that lead to war crimes.

Pretty much stand-up war... uniformed soldiers against uniformed soldiers or at least organized fediayn that was attempting standard tactics. Not the IED and hiding behind burkas that leads normal men to cross the line from combat to criminal action.

Answer 2

With your obviously loaded TROLL question against anything done by the ADF, it hardly rates a response.

Was the gassing of Northern Iraqi Kurds a WAR CRIME??

WAS the Gassing and ethnic cleansing of the Southern Swamp Kurds a War Crime??

No! it was just MASS MURDER carried out upon the wishes of a Dictator, a Dictator who was removed from power by the Australian, Americans & British along with other Allies.

Answer 3

WHOA!

Talk about a biased loaded question there... "not just the obvious one of aggressively invading another country"

Sorry to bust your bubble but the invasion of Iraq is not a "War Crime"

I was going to ask you to define your question a little better.

Do you mean did the forces themselves commit any war crimes?
or do you mean did any individuals serving in the ADF commit any war crimes?

The ADF itself, the British, nor the American Military have committed any war crimes.

Some individuals acting on their own and without authority have committed some crimes and those caught have subsequently been punished.

Most of these individuals have been American but that is not saying the Americans are worse.. that would be taking out of context. America has many times more forces involved then all the other countries put together.

If you had 100 soldiers and only 1 in every 10 did something wrong. Out of the 100 soldiers 90% are American and 10% are British.... you would have 1 Brit do wrong and 9 Americans doing wrong... but the percent of those doing wrong would be the same for the Brits as well as Americans.

The actual rate is much lower... maybe 1 in 10,000 troops may commit a crime (Not necessarily a war crime)

For the Forces themselves (and not individuals) to have committed a war crime, it would have to be a crime committed with the knowledge of and on the orders of command authority.

But then again you will just ignore everything I just said because your opening line already shows you are predisposed to an anti-military worldview.

UPDATE:

since your opening line proves you have no clue what is actually a "war Crime" let me enlighten you...
War crimes are defined in the statute that established the International Criminal Court, which includes:

1. Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, such as:

a) Willful killing, or causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health

b)Torture or inhumane treatment

c) Unlawful wanton destruction or appropriation of property

d) Forcing a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of a hostile power

e) Depriving a prisoner of war of a fair trial

f) Unlawful deportation, confinement or transfer

g) Taking hostages

2. The following acts as part of an international conflict:

a) Directing attacks against civilians

b) Directing attacks against humanitarian workers or UN peacekeepers

c) Killing a surrendered combatant

d) Misusing a flag of truce

e) Settlement of occupied territory

f) Deportation of inhabitants of occupied territory

g) Using poison weapons

h) Using civilians as shields

i) Using child soldiers

3. The following acts as part of a non-international conflict:

a) Murder, cruel or degrading treatment and torture

b) Directing attacks against civilians, humanitarian workers or UN peacekeepers

c) Taking hostages

d) Summary execution

e) Pillage

f) Rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution or forced pregnancy


Do you see "Legitimate invasion by one country on another" in that list? I didn't think so.

Answer 4

Most soldiers of any force are just doing their jobs. A very few commit war crimes as defined in the Geneva Convention. Now, the politicians who send them there -- thats another story.

Answer 5

I have not heard of any incidents of Australian forces committing any individual war crimes during the invasion of Iraq (eventually emerging to be an unjustified attack), or found any in my research.

One must keep in mind that most Australian combat forces deployed during the actual invasion were from SASR and 4RAR. Professional, special forces units. As such, there wasn't much scope or opportunity for murder, theft or rape.

Answer 6

The only war crime I see being committed is by these loser liberals who want to charge our war fighters with crimes.

Answer 7

Why not ask the Iraqis?

Answer 8

maybe they strapped bombs to themselves and killed women and children