On Australia’s ‘Day of Shame’, after the release of the Brereton Report, there was much talk of ‘warrior culture’ and ‘bad apples’. Sir Galahad, shining exemplar of warrior culture, never burnt villages or murdered children, but ‘bad apples’ has more of a ring of truth if applied to the few soldiers who take pleasure in killing. The uncomfortable phrase ‘blood lust’ rarely gets a mention, in spite of a nod in that direction in the Brereton Report. It’s damned awkward to chat about a topic like ‘reptilian ruthlessness … one of the strongest of human drives’.⁹⁴

The academic term is ‘hedonistic killing’, a subject as taboo as sex was in the 1950s. Lt-Colonel Dave Grossman, a US Army psychologist, broke the ice in the 1990s after spending 20 years interviewing veterans, hoping to understand ‘the beast called war—and the beast within each of us’.⁹⁵ More research followed, confirming that for some soldiers the act of killing brings ‘a self-affirmation that is almost erotic’,⁹⁶ as some veterans readily admitted.⁹⁷ After such intensity, ordinary existence seems tedious and pointless. Joanna Bourke, after interviewing British, American and Australian veterans from three wars, found that this only applies to a small minority of alpha males; as little as 2 per cent according to Grossman.