Anglosphere’s war crimes are part of their white supremacist culture

Editor’s note: Bradley Blankenship is an American freelance journalist, political analyst and reporter living in Prague. The article reflects the views of the author and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Almost two weeks ago, the inspector general of the Australian Defense Forces (ADF) released a report on alleged war crimes committed by ADF soldiers in Afghanistan, claiming to have credible evidence.

The report has sparked outrage in the international media; many are demanding justice for the incidents and the Australian government has already apologized and is moving to hold the suspects accountable.

The report, now called the Brereton War Crimes Report, alleges that 19 soldiers from the ADF’s elite special air services and commandos regiment had killed at least 39 Afghan civilians, including children.

According to the report, the killings of “prisoners, farmers or civilians” between 2009 and 2013 were the result of a “warrior culture” among some soldiers.

Furthermore, he found out that young soldiers were ordered to shoot prisoners to get their first kill. Often, he alleges, weapons were placed on the bodies to cover up these crimes. None of the identified incidents could “be described as in the heat of battle,” according to ADF chief General Angus Campbell.

The 19 soldiers involved could now be prosecuted for these killings and another 13, who are alleged accomplices to the killings or suspected of lying in their testimonies, have received notices of possible dismissal by the Australian military.

The Australian government has also said it will establish an independent panel to review the ADF and provide “accountability and transparency”.

Make no mistake, these incidents were not isolated and must have been deeply ingrained in the institution of the ADF.

They also represent something much bigger: a deeply ingrained cultural problem in the English-speaking world.

Former British colonies, such as Australia and the United States, are among the most dehumanizing countries in modern history. That is, their foundation in white supremacy and the subsequent treatment of the “other” makes them incomparable in their propensity to commit acts of wanton violence against human beings under the auspices that the victims are minor or subhuman.

In fact, Nazi Germany, the most infamous example of a white supremacist state, was deeply inspired by the former British colonies, which they considered sister nations.

They saw the creation of the United States of America and its rise to power after World War I, for example, as one of the most significant historical moments for white supremacy, and their jurists took serious inspiration from American racial law, the immigration law “. anti-mestizaje law” and even the political construction of whiteness.

Hitler himself marveled at the American immigration system in his unreleased sequel to Mein Kampf, referring to immigration quotas and praising the exclusion of “foreign bodies” from immigration.

The Immigration Act of 1924, according to the Office of the Historian of the US Department of State, “limited the number of immigrants authorized to enter the United States through a national origin quota. The quota provided immigration visas to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. Immigrants from Asia were completely excluded. ” This was an immigration policy that inspired other English-speaking countries, such as Australia.

During World War II, the Nazis frequently channeled the American genocide of the Native Americans in their conquest to the east, murdering the population of Eastern Europe for habitat (living space) in a way that may also be related to the massacre of the Aboriginal population in Australia.

It is widely taught in Western schools and in the media that Nazi Germany, its brutal war effort and unspeakable crimes during the Holocaust are the quintessential example of the dangerous consequences of racism and dehumanization.

There is no doubt that there are obviously serious divergences between Nazi Germany and the former British colonies. But the fact that the Nazis relied so heavily on the English-speaking world, including Australia and the United States, on how to dehumanize people should say something about their cultures.

All the genocidal actions of the United States and Australia and their “racist past” are gone, just a bad memory or a stain on a rich history of liberal democracy.

However, these countries were and continue to be the pioneers of racism and dehumanization.

Earlier this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) began investigating alleged war crimes committed by the United States and other actors in Afghanistan.

It follows a 2016 ICC report, which has come under continuous attack by the current US administration for this report, which established a reasonable basis for believing that the US has torture programs in Afghanistan operated by the Central Intelligence Agency. (INC). The Taliban and the Afghan government were also implicated in crimes.

The UK is also under attack.

Last week, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission called on the UK “to open an independent public inquiry to review and investigate allegations of unlawful killings by UK Special Forces.” The UK High Court is also investigating whether the government has properly verified alleged incidents of human rights abuses.

It is only after a serious media frenzy that all of this is receiving attention, showing that the armed forces of these countries cannot be held accountable for human rights abuses. And the reason is that the victims of these crimes, for them, are not really human.

It is not an isolated incident, not within the ADF or even in Australia itself, but a deep cultural problem of white supremacy throughout the English-speaking world that needs correction.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at [email protected]).