MOUNTING evidence that the SAS hushed up war crimes by special forces in Afghanistan underline the need for accountability enforced by robust, independent investigation and channels for victims to come forward.

Yet even as the Independent Inquiry Relating to Afghanistan exposes these machinations, a concerted propaganda campaign against investigating allegations against British troops is being waged.

Attorney-General Lord Richard Hermer is accused of a “witch-hunt” for having represented alleged victims of war crimes by British troops in Iraq; it was also Lord Hermer who presented evidence to the Afghanistan inquiry that two Afghan adults were shot dead while asleep with children sleeping next to them.

The case against Lord Hermer is flimsy: because he once called for further investigation into claims British troops had murdered Iraqis in their custody which were later found to be “without foundation” by the al-Sweady Inquiry, two Tories (ex-defence secretary Gavin Williamson and shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy) have demanded he be investigated by the Bar Standards Board, Kemi Badenoch has slammed him as “ridiculous” and Nigel Farage describes him as “treacherous” and “a national security threat.”

Farage is open about why: being “happy to prosecute the very people who are prepared to give their life for king and country to keep us safe” means he is a “deeply unpatriotic man.”

In short, soldiers should not be prosecuted whatever they do.

Saying it is wrong to have investigated a claim if is then found to be false is obvious nonsense: the Tories, too, are really engaged in a campaign to allow troops to commit crimes with impunity.

That has a very long pedigree, but must now be seen in an international context where the defence secretary of the most powerful state on Earth, Pete Hegseth — part of an administration of which Farage especially is a declared fan — derides “stupid rules of engagement” and calls for the military to worry only about “maximum lethality not tepid legality.” This while incinerating hundreds of children in a primary school bombing and conducting extrajudicial killings in boat bombings across the Caribbean.

None of those crimes were condemned by the Tories or Reform (or Labour, come to that) and these parties are also vocal in their defence of an Israeli state committing blatant war crimes daily in Palestine and Lebanon, so it’s fair to assume it’s not vexatious claims that bother them but the very idea that rules exist.

We can dispel any fond imaginings that British soldiers never behave like those of the United States or Israel.

The Afghanistan inquiry was set up to probe the killing of 54 Afghan detainees under suspicious circumstances; SAS troops reportedly carried out extrajudicial killings, including of children, in controversial “night raids.” Other British soldiers have testified that the army believed the SAS policy was to “kill all males on target whether they posed a threat or not” and the scandal reached the point where the Afghan president raised it with Nato.

It was only set up following a BBC Panorama investigation: as well as scaring lawyers off such cases, the right seeks to deter journalists from following up such stories.

Nor was Afghanistan unique: the International Criminal Court found in 2020 that hundreds of Iraqi detainees were abused by British troops between 2003 and 2009.

Individual war crimes are not the core problem with either war: they were themselves criminal. Launching a war of aggression was defined as the “supreme international crime” at Nuremberg and those who took the decision to start those wars should be in the dock.

But the campaign to stop war crimes allegations being investigated — and to smear those who look into them as traitors — is a sinister part of the wider right-wing agenda to dismantle the architecture of international law, human rights and treaty agreements on the treatment of prisoners of war, refugees and civilian populations.