In this episode of The Voices of War, Maz speaks with Brigadier (Ret.) Dan Fortune, DSC and Bar, a retired SASR commander and one of Australia’s most decorated special operations officers, reflecting on leadership, accountability, and the human cost of Australia’s war in Afghanistan.

Dan served extensively within SASR Sabre Squadrons as both an enlisted operator and later a commissioned officer. His career includes multiple combat deployments to Afghanistan, senior targeting and command roles, counter-terrorism operations, combat freefall missions, and leadership appointments within Australian and NATO Special Operations Task Groups. He also served alongside US Tier One special forces and commanded the ADF Tactical Assault Group during the Sydney Olympics.

Building on themes raised in the award-winning documentary Bravery and Betrayal and Episode 1 on this topic with Vando and Brett, this conversation explores the effects of relentless operational tempo, repeated rotations, and prolonged exposure to violence on moral judgement and decision-making. Dan discusses how cultural mismatch and partner force dynamics shaped operational realities on the ground, including green-on-blue incidents and force protection failures.

The episode examines the conduct and consequences of the IGADF and Brereton processes, including findings later characterised by the Royal Commission as ‘weaponised injustice’. Dan reflects on how bureaucratic risk aversion, strategic distance, and institutional self-protection displaced accountability downward, leaving tactical operators to absorb blame, reputational damage, and long-term moral injury.

Rather than focusing on individual wrongdoing, this episode interrogates systems: how wars are managed from afar, how leadership decisions cascade, and how justice, recognition, and responsibility are applied after conflict. It offers a sober, first-hand perspective on command, culture, and the enduring costs of a war of choice.

Key Moments:

• DSC and Bar SASR commander reveals moral compass shift in combat
• Civilian casualties & how tolerance hardened over deployments
• Fat Lady's Arms hypocrisy: PMs drank, troops demonized
• IGADF as weaponized injustice - Royal Commission critique
• Green-on-blue murders & partner force cultural clashes
• O6 and below values vs One Star and above interests: Leadership cowardice exposed
• Healing through truth: Veteran recognition & future lessons

Is Israel beginning to collapse from within?

In this in depth conversation, renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappé explains why he believes Zionism has entered its final phase, how Israeli society is disintegrating internally, and what a just future for Palestinians and Israelis could look like.

Pappé, director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic and Israel on the Brink, draws on decades of archival research to argue that Israel is a classic settler colonial project built on ethnic cleansing, apartheid and permanent military rule over Palestinians. He details the social implosion inside Israel, the growing split between secular and religious Jews, the role of the U.S. and European powers, and why he thinks decolonization is inevitable.

We discuss 1948 and the Nakba, the Gaza war, accusations of genocide, the collapse of the two-state solution, one democratic state between the river and the sea, Jewish-Palestinian coexistence, and what real decolonization might require in practice.

For anyone trying to understand the future of Israel-Palestine, this is an unfiltered, long form analysis from one of the conflict’s most important dissident historians.

If you value independent conversations like this, please like the episode, leave a comment, share it, and subscribe to The Voices of War for more long‑form interviews with critical thinkers from around the world.

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📘 About Ilan Pappé Renowned Israeli historian, director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies, and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Ten Myths About Israel and Israel on the Brink.

🎙️ Related episodes & reading Explore more conversations on Palestine, Gaza, decolonization and the lived experience of war at https://thevoicesofwar.com

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