Thursday, June 20, 2019

This changes nothing

The core claims of Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager's Hit & Run are that the New Zealand SAS raided two villages in Afghanistan in search of "insurgents" who weren't there, and in the process killed six civilians including a three-year-old child. Today, Jon Stephenson has retracted one of those claims: he has been able to interview the insurgents the SAS wanted to kill (!), and found out they were there that night - but that they also escaped without firing a shot. Meanwhile those interviews also confirm the rest of the story: that the only people killed were civilians.

This doesn't seem to change anything from the point of view of the SAS's moral responsibility for the killings. They still killed non-combatants, including a three-year-old. And they still went back later to destroy a building as revenge, in violation of the laws of war. They're still murderers and war criminals. And they still need to be held responsible for it.