Coalition Special Forces on Trial, War Crimes or Witch Hunt?

“Truth is the first casualty of war.” 

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming a fading memory. The truth of what happened there is becoming as murky as a South Florida swamp in August.

To this day, there exist allegations of wrongdoings on the part of some coalition units, including special operations forces.

I got the idea for this article after reading a piece put out by the BBC. You can check it out here if you’d like. It basically accuses members of the UK Special Forces of all sorts of war crimes. In some cases, these allegations have been under investigation for decades.

I asked SOFREP friend and contributor, renowned SAS soldier Phil Campion, author of numerous books such as Born Fearless and Who Dares, Wins,  what he thought of the debacle. Big Phil says unequivocally:

The whole thing is misinterpreted BBC bull****, put together by people who have never been there seen it or done it. It is about time the government protected the ones who protect them. 

And if anyone would know the truth of the situation, it would be Big Phil. When it comes to SAS operations, he’s been there and done that, over and over and over again.

In modern warfare, the rules of engagement change quicker than a politician’s message during an election year. Sometimes, leadership fails to lead, and that’s when bad apples can go off the rails.

I’m not making excuses here; these are the facts. War is an ugly, messy, confusing business. Sometimes the clear-cut, isn’t.

It is with this knowledge and Big Phil’s quote firmly in mind that I write my story about the BBC story alleging war crimes.

Remember, mainstream media is in the business of getting views and clicks…happy endings just don’t cut it.

The Ghosts of Counterinsurgency (As Told By the BBC) 

Somewhere in the dusty backstreets of Helmand and the shattered compounds of Basra, a new shadow looms over the legacy of the UK’s most elite warriors. Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS) and other special forces units stand accused of war crimes—allegations that range from extrajudicial killings to falsifying mission reports. Not a good look for the crown’s most formidable warfighters.

This isn’t a new tune, just a darker reprise of a grim melody we’ve heard before. Much like their American counterparts in SEAL Team 6 and Delta Force, British special forces found themselves wading through the moral swamp of two wars that dragged on too long and changed shape too many times. The enemy wasn’t always in uniform, the mission often shifted mid-stride, and the rules of engagement morphed into an ambiguous tangle that left troops improvising under fire.

And that’s where things can start to unravel.

Kicking Down the Wrong Doors

Reports have surfaced through investigative journalism—BBC’s Panorama among the most vocal—that UK special forces killed unarmed detainees during night raids in Afghanistan. According to some whistleblowers, the kill-or-capture missions often ended in “kill” regardless of who was on the other side of the door. In one case, a young Afghan man was allegedly executed after being detained, his wrists still reportedly bound, when they found his body was found.

If true, that’s not a counterinsurgency win. It’s a summary execution.

This wasn’t just one rogue operator or a bad day at the office. These reports suggest a pattern—a culture of silence, sanitized reports, and a command structure that either looked away or didn’t want to know.

A British judge recently ruled that these allegations warrant a full-blown inquiry. Meanwhile, former defense ministers and senior officers are scrambling to declare their faith in the “bravery and integrity” of their troops, while privately preparing for legal firestorms. Sound familiar? It’s happened in every modern war we’ve been involved in. 

When the War Machine Eats Its Own

Stateside, we’ve already been down this bloody trail multiple times. The SEALs saw one of their own, Eddie Gallagher, publicly accused of stabbing a wounded ISIS prisoner in the neck, taking photos with the corpse, and encouraging others to do the same. He was acquitted of murder but convicted of posing with a corpse, and the case blew the doors off a culture where silent professionalism had turned into a code of silence.

Then there was the disturbing case of Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 3124 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, in 2012-13. Locals accused the team of torturing and killing civilians. Bodies were found buried near their base. The accusations were so serious that Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded the team leave Wardak province. 

After multiple investigations, the Pentagon cleared the men of ODA 3124 of any wrongdoing. Still, once accused, the stink lingers and is slow to completely go away. 

These cases aren’t isolated flare-ups—they’re symptoms of a broader rot that sets in when mission sets lack clarity, and leadership goes AWOL.

Sometimes the appearance of impropriety can be as bad as the impropriety itself.  

No Compass, No North Star

The global war on terror was never designed for clarity. One minute you’re building schools, the next you’re calling in airstrikes. The enemy morphs from Taliban to Al-Qaeda to some unknown kid with an old AK and a grudge. In the fog of this shapeshifting war, leadership at the highest levels failed to provide a coherent strategy, clear objectives, or enforceable standards.

When there’s no firm moral compass handed down from command, operators are left to forge their own. That works for a while—until it doesn’t.

It’s not hard to see how these guys have the potential to go dark. They operate in moral gray zones, largely cut off from oversight, buried under classified operations. The kill chain tightens, and the justification becomes easier: “They were a threat,” “He reached for something,” “It was him or me.“ And eventually, you start believing it, even when it’s not true. Some refer to it as “the fog of war”, and it’s a real thing that can affect the best warfighters. 

The Wolf in the Mirror

Let’s not pretend the Taliban or ISIS play by Geneva rules. They don’t. But our moral edge—the thing that separates us from the monsters we hunt—erodes the moment we start imitating them. A Special Forces operator (of any nationality) with no leash and no mission can become a heavily armed warlord with night vision. When this happens, it is a leadership failure and a strategic liability. Think Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. 

These men aren’t cartoon villains. They’re warfighters who were sent into impossible situations by generals and politicians who rarely paid the price for their indecision. But the brutal truth is this: once you cross the line, you can’t uncross it. Justice must be blind, even for those who operate in the dark.

Final Shot

If there’s one lesson from all this, it’s that elite doesn’t mean infallible. The British government owes it to the public and to the memory of the war dead to investigate these allegations fully. So do we. If we want to keep sending our best into the shadows, we damn well better make sure someone’s watching the light.

Otherwise, we’re not deploying special forces—we’re unleashing ghosts.