The knuckles on my hands quickly turned from brown to pink to white when I first learned of the ‘bombshell’ Brereton Report. The outcome of a four-year long investigation by Maj Gen Justice Paul Brereton, the report lists 23 harrowing instances of innocent Afghans killed by Australian troops stationed in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2016. None of the Afghans murdered died in the heat of the battle. The ‘large number of killings [were] often gloated about’ by Australian forces.

During operations in Afghan villages, a military sociologist was told that it was routine practice for Australian Defence Forces to take men and boys away and interrogate them, which was a guise for their real and more sinister intention: to tie them up and torture them.