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Monday, August 22, 2011

Afghanistan - killing in the name of?

As another soldier John Key sent back into a war zone because we no longer attempt an independent foreign policy dies propping up a corrupt narco state while we are about to anoint a Governor General who has allegations of breaching international obligations by over seeing our handing over of Afghan civilians to known torture units, let's ask again, what are we doing in this unending war of occupation.

Wayne Mapp embarrassingly claimed during Q+A that we are in Afghanistan to prevent the 7 NZers who have died because of international terrorism in 10 years. If our threshold for occupying another country is a mere 7 NZers who have died in a decade, why the bloody hell aren't we sending the SAS into every KFC in NZ to torch them? The Double Down burger will kill many more NZers than international terrorism ever will.

The first thing Key will do if he wins is U-turn on the SAS and keep them in Afghanistan. I introduced Jon Stephenson at the Wintec School of Journalism last week to reflect on our latest war without end, his courage at continuing to challenge the official version of events and highlight the unconscionable position we place our soldiers in by having them hand civilians over to known torture units.

Thank God Metro are relevant and brave again!

No one sums up the contempt for war like our greatest poet, James K Baxter...

The Gunner's Lament

A Maori gunner lay dying
In a paddyfield north of Saigon,
And he said to his pakeha cobber,
"I reckon I've had it, man!

'And if I could fly like a bird
To my old granny's whare
A truck and a winch would never drag
Me back to the Army.

'A coat and a cap and a well-paid job
Looked better than shovelling metal,
And they told me that Te Rauparaha
Would have fought in the Vietnam battle.

'On my last leave the town swung round
Like a bucket full of eels.
The girls liked the uniform
And I liked the girls.

'Like a bullock to the abattoirs
In the name of liberty
They flew me with a hangover
Across the Tasman Sea,

'And what I found in Vietnam
Was mud and blood and fire,
With the Yanks and the Reds taking turns
At murdering the poor.

'And I saw the reason for it
In a Viet Cong's blazing eyes -
We fought for the crops of kumara
And they are fighting for the rice.

'So go tell my sweetheart
To get another boy
Who'll cuddle her and marry her
And laugh when the bugles blow,

'And tell my youngest brother
He can have my shotgun
To fire at the ducks on the big lagoon,
But not to aim it at a man,

'And tell my granny to wear black
And carry a willow leaf,
Because the kid she kept from the cold
Has eaten a dead man's loaf.

'And go and tell Keith Holyoake
Sitting in Wellington,
However long he scrubs his hands
He'll never get them clean.'


James K Baxter
1965


You'll never get them clean John.

And while we are at it, I still think it is utterly unaceptable that we are spending tax payer money via NZ on Air to recuit children into our military and having this show play on the weekend on TV2...

Operation Hero is being funded by a bewilderingly huge advertising budget by the NZ Defence Force that has spent $20 million in the last 3 years with another $15million lined up for the next three.

Why on earth are we spending money on reality TV shows aimed at Children coming out of the recruitment budgets of the military? When did we start propaganda for the war machine as part of television programming for kids?

What obscenity are they cooking up here?

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to the Sesame Street Miltia?


The semi-automatic rainbow connection?


Cookie Monster says get on the ground now terrorist?


Our children are not recruitment fodder for the NZ war machine and our taxpayers dollars sure as hell shouldn't be used to con kids into thinking it is.

Out of Afghanistan now.

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2 Comments:

At 23/8/11 1:30 pm, Blogger Frank said...

$20 million spent on recruiting for the military - whilst Women Refuge gets their funding cut by $800,000.

Well, that kinda shows this government's rotten sense of priorities, eh?

 
At 23/8/11 6:50 pm, Blogger frances jane said...

I wondered what was in Afghanistan, as well as the TAP pipeline, this could be the reason they won't leave:http://www.csmonitor.com/From-the-news-wires/2010/0614/Afghan-mineral-deposits-worth-trillions-are-found-by-US

 

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