Breaker Morant

A while back I mentioned Netflix delivering to my door a copy of Breaker Morant, a brilliant Australian film about a controversial court-martial in 1902 South Africa. I got a chance to watch it over the weekend and it is staggeringly relevant to the current Iraqi prisoner abuse situation.

The film tells the true story of three Australian soldiers (fighting for the British) charged with murdering prisoners of war during the Boer War in South Africa. Alone, that doesn't sound that remarkable - it's something easily condemned by most civilized people. The twist, if you will, is that the three Australians were part of a special unit formed to fight Boer guerilla fighters - kommandos - on their own terms. They were to travel light, work on surprise and hit and run tactics, and live off the land. The tactics were very successful. They were not, however, particularly amenable to the taking of prisoners. Throw in a commander killed and mutilated in an ambush, and you have a situation ripe for abuse.

What makes the situation in the film sound in modern times is the defense put forward by the three Australians: they were following orders. Not neatly defined written orders, of course, but unwritten rules enforced by a lack of correction from superiors. New rules for a new war, it was often said. It's amazing how much of that argument, made in 1902, is the center of dispute more than 100 years later.

Breaker Morant is a brilliant film, and I would have recommended it long before the abuses in Iraq came to light. But with that background, it's examination of the messy intersection of morality, law, and the realities of war is particularly relevant today.