No Right Turn sometimes disgusts me.
Since August 2003, New Zealand has had troops in Afghanistan, working as a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamyan province. They’ve been doing the usual work of the New Zealand army - building schools - rather than actually shooting at people, and so the deployment has met little public opposition. But that might be about to change. Yesterday, a new Zealand patrol was hit by a roadside bomb. No-one was hurt, but someone might have been, and its a sign that things are getting more dangerous.
Boy, that has always worked in the past!
The question we should be asking ourselves now is what price we are willing to pay in Afghanistan. Are we willing to see people come home in bodybags? Because if we stay there, that’s looking increasingly likely to happen.
Given the nature of Afghanistan’s government, I think the price is “nothing at all”. I am not willing to see kiwi troops die to defend an oppressive theocracy which violates human rights. This near miss is a warning to us all of what the future might hold, and a clear signal to bring our troops home.
Given the choice of the current government and the Taliban, I vote we stay. The current government may well be an oppressive theocracy, but there is a chance that it can improve with time if we stay.
All that leaving will do is set an even more oppressive theocracy in place, one that is not elected and will not be improving the lot of the local people or working with the west.
We’re doing good by building schools. How would we tell those Afghan girls that they can’t go to school because the solders who volunteered to join our army were withdrawn, leaving them to a life of brutal repression and no less danger than the solders who wanted to take those risks?
When did those young people sign up to dodge bullets and roadside bombs? Isn’t running at the first sign of danger completely contrary to the entire reason we’re over there in the first place?
It’s not like IS has no opinions on other repressive regimes, but he must realize that boycotts just don’t work in instances like this. This is actual action to make lives better, not some pathetic “well meaning” gesture that can be brushed off. You can’t speak against thugs in one sentence, then later advocate surrender to them in another.
