Australian soldiers have committed terrible crimes in Afghanistan, torture and murder. 39 civilians are said to have been killed by members of the famous "Special Air Service". The outcry was great; Criminal investigations have been initiated against 19 soldiers. But there was no talk of breaking up the unit, although the serious crimes were even a kind of ritual for newcomers to take in. In the British SAS, the mother of these special forces, there were fatalities during a march in the mountains of Wales - but this part of the training remained unchanged.

One thing is different than in Germany: the government, parliament and apparently large parts of the public stand by their armed forces - especially the isolated and elitist special forces - no matter what.

Even the apologies for the dire Australian crimes were woven with pride in the troops and thanks for what they had done in Afghanistan.

KSK only narrowly escaped the dissolution

In this country it is different: the soldiers are responsible.

The defense minister had expressly placed the special forces command on parole.

It narrowly escaped its dissolution.

It is also correct: It was not about murder, but about extremism, even the suspicion of right-wing terrorism, about missing weapons and ammunition - but possibly also about signs of dangerous anti-constitutional activities.

It's good that we are now taking a much closer look.

For reasons of the rule of law, however, it is essential to take a sober look at each individual case.

Not every gun fanatic is a terrorist and not every stupid joke is a military offense.

In Lithuania, German soldiers may have crossed criminal law boundaries in several ways.

And beyond that: Anyone who cannot control himself, not only on duty and especially when deployed abroad, is not suitable as a soldier. If there is a suspicion of collective failure, a collective replacement is justified, which serves to clear up the allegations, and clear words are appropriate. The defense minister went over the target with her sentence "Whatever has happened is in no way acceptable". If that is the case, you can save yourself any clarification and dispense with any presumption of innocence.

This shows an unpleasant drift.

The police special forces are also affected.

In Frankfurt, the SEK has been dissolved.

In fact, right-wing extremist sentiments were evident here, but in any case unsuitability and leadership failure when pictures with Nazi reference were sent around in larger groups.

The fact that the Hessian interior minister and the special investigator are amazed at the ritualized honoring of a comrade who was killed in action and at the corps spirit displayed on display shows once again the German dilemma: Special forces are an elite.

There are no special forces without a corps spirit.

They are martial because of their profession.

And every club knows honors for the dead.

Those who do not want all of this have to do without special forces - but then also take responsibility for the consequences for freedom and security.