Oz joins US in prisoner abuse

Australian troops have a reputation in the world gone by. Our troops are known as full on hard but smart fighters, with a conscience of what the correct behaviour is appropriate during conflict. Now it seems we have joined the US in Afghanistan in more ways than just military support. It appears now the US affliction of their troops not following the laws of war have been afflicted upon our troops too. :

The Chief of the Defence Force, General David Hurley, said in a statement released on May 8: "An incident of potential misconduct during the operation has been raised through the internal national command chain." 

The ABC understands that the detail of the misconduct he alluded to involves the removal of hands from the corpse of at least one Afghan insurgent. 

Australian troops are required to collect fingerprints and eye scans of every Taliban fighter who is killed, if it is possible to do so. 

The ABC has learned that an investigator from the Australian Defence Force Investigative Service (ADFIS) lectured a group of special forces soldiers and told them that it did not matter how the fingerprints were taken and that if they could chop off the hands of the dead and bring them back to base for fingerprinting, that would be acceptable. 

The ABC understands at least one pair of hands was present at the Australian base in Tarin Kot. 

The mutilation or mistreatment of the bodies of the dead is a violation of the laws of war. more

It's the only way I can even start to get my head around this one. 

Australian troops, recommended to do so by Australian troop superiors, cut off the hands of an Afghanistan suspect's dead body, and took them back to the Australian base at Tarin Kot (no idea where that is). clearly against the Geneva Convention:

Article 15 of the first Geneva Convention says: "At all times, and particularly after an engagement, Parties to the conflict shall, without delay, take all possible measures to search for and collect the wounded and sick, to protect them against pillage and ill-treatment, to ensure their adequate care, and to search for the dead and prevent their being despoiled." more

I feel incredibly betrayed. I'm an Australian, and these glorified fuckwits are doing that in my fuckin name..... and not by some underling troops on the ground, but by people who should fuckin know better: the fuckin Special Forces  FFS!