Afghanistan: Are the NZ troops fighting someone else’s war?
August 2012 – the first time since 1951 that New Zealand has lost so many soldiers in war.
For the past 10 years, the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team has been working in the Bamiyan province in an effort to keep tribal wars at bay and the people of the location safe. Eyewitness reports from those who have visited say that the efforts that we are making in that province is astounding and although we may not be contributing to the entire war effort, what we are doing for the Bamiyan province is helping.
New Zealand first deployed troops to help the Afghanistan war, which began in October 2001, in December of the same year. We were given command of the Bamiyan province in September 2003 with teams of 100 soldiers being put into six-month shifts. The NZSAS were deployed in 2009 where they were given charge of mentoring the Afghan Crisis Response Unit.
Following this redeployment, we faced the first NZ death in combat since 2000, when Lieutenant Tim O’Donnell died when his patrol was attacked by insurgents. Since then, three more soldiers lost their lives before the final NZSAS deployment to Afghanistan ended. Jonathan Coleman, Defence Minister, stated that the soldiers had “directly helped protect New Zealanders from the risk of international terrorism”.
Since then, we have lost six more soldiers this year. The most recent, in August 2012, being the two that were shot in a gun battle when their patrol went to aid the Afghan police and the three whose Humvee hit an Improvised Explosive Device.
The question on everybody’s minds is whether these lives are worth what we have achieved in the Bamiyan province and is it really our job to be over there when we have no direct quarrel with them?
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton believes it is. She states that the New Zealand soldiers have made “extraordinary sacrifices” but is convinced that they progress made in Bamiyan is worth it. The government’s justification to the latter question is that we have a responsibility as part of the international community to aid our allies in their war efforts and to do what we can to help the civilians in Afghanistan who are suffering due to the breeding ground for terrorists it has become.
Comedians who have visited the Bamiyan area for the purpose of entertaining our troops say that they have never seen anything like it. They’re saying that our men are there to protect the Afghanis living in the area and that is exactly what they are doing by defending them from tribal wars and from the terrorist groups seeping in.
That said, the question remains as to whether it was our responsibility to be there in the first place, to fight an American war and to stay there for over a decade when things don’t seem to be getting any better.
Of the three goals that were set out at the beginning of the war – kill bin Laden, restore a functional democracy and weed out al Qaeda – only one has been achieved and that too 10 years after the fact and he was found in Pakistan. Pakistan is really the only key word there. The terrorist groups that were so prominent in Afghanistan at the start of the millennium have simply moved over the border into Pakistan. All this said however, our involvement in Afghanistan has led to the publication of the many, many cases injustices against women and children.
Prime Minister John Key recently announced that our troops will be pulled out from Afghanistan around April of next year. The Australians believe bringing forward their 2014 pull out date would be damaging to their reputation and would not be beneficial to either country.
Should New Zealand follow big brother or pull out early? And more importantly, was our effort worth it or were we fighting someone else’s war?
• Pooja Sundar is a third year law and politics student at the University of Auckland
August 2012 – the first time since 1951 that New Zealand has lost so many soldiers in war. For the past 10 years, the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team has been working in the Bamiyan province in an effort to keep tribal wars at bay and the people of the location safe. Eyewitness reports...
August 2012 – the first time since 1951 that New Zealand has lost so many soldiers in war.
For the past 10 years, the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team has been working in the Bamiyan province in an effort to keep tribal wars at bay and the people of the location safe. Eyewitness reports from those who have visited say that the efforts that we are making in that province is astounding and although we may not be contributing to the entire war effort, what we are doing for the Bamiyan province is helping.
New Zealand first deployed troops to help the Afghanistan war, which began in October 2001, in December of the same year. We were given command of the Bamiyan province in September 2003 with teams of 100 soldiers being put into six-month shifts. The NZSAS were deployed in 2009 where they were given charge of mentoring the Afghan Crisis Response Unit.
Following this redeployment, we faced the first NZ death in combat since 2000, when Lieutenant Tim O’Donnell died when his patrol was attacked by insurgents. Since then, three more soldiers lost their lives before the final NZSAS deployment to Afghanistan ended. Jonathan Coleman, Defence Minister, stated that the soldiers had “directly helped protect New Zealanders from the risk of international terrorism”.
Since then, we have lost six more soldiers this year. The most recent, in August 2012, being the two that were shot in a gun battle when their patrol went to aid the Afghan police and the three whose Humvee hit an Improvised Explosive Device.
The question on everybody’s minds is whether these lives are worth what we have achieved in the Bamiyan province and is it really our job to be over there when we have no direct quarrel with them?
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton believes it is. She states that the New Zealand soldiers have made “extraordinary sacrifices” but is convinced that they progress made in Bamiyan is worth it. The government’s justification to the latter question is that we have a responsibility as part of the international community to aid our allies in their war efforts and to do what we can to help the civilians in Afghanistan who are suffering due to the breeding ground for terrorists it has become.
Comedians who have visited the Bamiyan area for the purpose of entertaining our troops say that they have never seen anything like it. They’re saying that our men are there to protect the Afghanis living in the area and that is exactly what they are doing by defending them from tribal wars and from the terrorist groups seeping in.
That said, the question remains as to whether it was our responsibility to be there in the first place, to fight an American war and to stay there for over a decade when things don’t seem to be getting any better.
Of the three goals that were set out at the beginning of the war – kill bin Laden, restore a functional democracy and weed out al Qaeda – only one has been achieved and that too 10 years after the fact and he was found in Pakistan. Pakistan is really the only key word there. The terrorist groups that were so prominent in Afghanistan at the start of the millennium have simply moved over the border into Pakistan. All this said however, our involvement in Afghanistan has led to the publication of the many, many cases injustices against women and children.
Prime Minister John Key recently announced that our troops will be pulled out from Afghanistan around April of next year. The Australians believe bringing forward their 2014 pull out date would be damaging to their reputation and would not be beneficial to either country.
Should New Zealand follow big brother or pull out early? And more importantly, was our effort worth it or were we fighting someone else’s war?
• Pooja Sundar is a third year law and politics student at the University of Auckland
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