FROM OUR WAR CRIMES CORRESPONDENT, HARRY MORANT, IN NUREMBERG

“WE CANNOT thank them enough for their contribution to our cause. Frankly, we couldn’t have achieved victory without them.”

That’s the message from Taliban leaders in Kabul to the Australian SAS.

“We were in real trouble in 2001, when we were driven out of power. But then we just went guerrilla, and waited, and waited. The rest we left to our enemies. They dusted off the old counter-insurgency plans that have failed in just about every guerrilla war since 1945, sent in their “special forces” to target individuals instead of trying to take ground and keep it, and wound up killing anything and everything with a pulse because they either couldn’t identify our fighters or couldn’t be bothered identifying our fighters because they were lost among our people. Of course, casual killings lead to more casual killings. You get the picture. At times we yawned, they were so predictable. Anyway, if we could drink alcohol we’d raise a glass to you all. Allah u Akbar!”