The release of the Brereton Report has confirmed an open secret: Australian soldiers in Afghanistan are suspected of murdering at least thirty-nine unarmed civilians. The authors of the report have gone to great lengths to stress that these slayings — whose victims include children — were driven by “blood lust,” “competition killing,” and sickening “rites of passage.”

The Australian government this week referred the matter to a special investigator. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the public to prepare for “brutal truths.” Media outlets near-unanimously described the report as “shocking.”

In truth, the allegations — while certainly grotesque — shouldn’t have come as a shock. Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001. Within less than a year, reports of sadistic violence started coming out from Afghanistan and later Iraq, and they haven’t stopped appearing since. Sometimes the reports detailed atrocities carried out by lower-ranking soldiers from the US-led occupation forces. But just as often, the crimes were implicitly or explicitly sanctioned by those higher up.