| Anzac Day Protests - and 760
kilograms of High Explosive
†
May 2007
Whose Peace are We Keeping?
The Peace Action Wellington protest on Anzac
Day was aimed at neither veterans nor monuments. We chose the
dawn service because we felt we could not blindly and uncritically
accept that Anzac Day is about "Lest we forget" without
recognising the hypocrisy of a government engaged in 18 military
missions.
Defence Minister Phil Goff and Afghan President
Hamid Karzai met only last week. Karzai is happy to applaud New
Zealand's work - he is benefiting from its presence. This war
has gone on for six years and New Zealand has been there since
the beginning with SAS troops, navy frigates and Orion aircraft.
The NZ Defence Force is not some neutral force.
It comprises armed soldiers endorsing US President George W Bush's
"war on terror".
Mr Goff and Prime Minister Helen Clark call
it peacekeeping but whose peace are we keeping and why? So far,
this war has cost about 30,000 civilian lives. Lest we forget,
militaries exist only to wage war. If we are genuinely interested
in making sure we never again have war dead, we must stop engaging
in war.
Valerie Morse, Island Bay
For a start Valerie Morse is certainly not keeping
anyone's peace.If the protest "was aimed at neither veterans
nor monuments" you would surly have to wonder why it was done
on this particular day, of all days - the most Anti-war day there
is. Why were they not standing beside the veterans, remembering
the cost? It would also be very helpful if she learned that George
Bush didn't somehow dream up this whole War on Terror. That it is
being waged all around the world, including the Pacific, places
much closer to home.
She is not so clever as to try and get away with
subconsciously lumping it in with the war in Iraq. The government's
views on this are quite different indeed.The government do not call
operations in Afghanistan peacekeeping and never have. But indeed,
most of the operations she broadly speaks of are. Freedoms of speech
unfortunately do not automatically enforce the notion that a speaker
exacting their rights will know what they are actually talking about.
As painful as such words would be to such a individual or group
- the NZSAS are actually involved in what is termed Direct Action
missions - that is, closing with, and killing the enemy. But mostly,
they hide up in holes, most certainly not killing anyone, while,
inches from ones face the enemy does lurk. It is under these conditions,
often for days at a time, units like the SAS provide battlefield
intelligence, which actually allows for given conflict to be concluded
much more decisively, with far fewer casualties.
Sadly this is something that these groups will not,
nor will probably ever, understand. Perhaps they would rather a
conflict go on and on, massive amounts of death as a result of attrition
warfare. For, asides a few more major battles, this war consists
of numerous skirmishes rather than the overwhelming slaughters consistent
with World War One, or even World War Two.
I have been to a (single) Peace Action Wellington
meeting last year. It was dealing with the IDF / Hizbollah conflict.
Interestingly I saw very little in our circle which related to peace.
In fact, most of it was about generating hatred, or at the very
least spite, towards Americans and Jews. I was targeted for making
the comments you would expect an ex-Army fellow to say, while a
Jewish couple there, and someone representing a local Jewish group
copped more flak than me during the evening. I understand the art
of diplomacy and sometimes wish I did not. Peace is a very easy
word to throw about, putting the principles into action is a very
different kettle of fish.
On the issue of the NZSAS being present - this is
also a UN sanctioned operation. The Labour government has faced
up to the realities of our current global climate, as I allude to
below, I am sure Ms Morse would not be very happy to be the victim
of a bomb blast in Island Bay simply because she lives in, what
is deemed by extremists of this persuasion, to be a "Christian"
country.Would she prefer that the NZSAS had to be charged with CRW
operations here in New Zealand?
Countless American lives were saved by the efforts of our Special
Forces in the mountains of Afghanistan during Anaconda. I suggest
she go over there and spend five minutes on the ground. American
soldiers' lives might not mean much to her, but battlefield reconnaissance
in some of the worst conditions imaginable are not to be rejected
by a person who has no knowledge whatsoever of such things.
I am unsure why, but every time I have an encounter with such people,
it is always made clear to me how they dismiss a soldier as human,
how they somehow are a second class citizen. It is reinforced here,
as you'll note the number of civilian lives lost (according to her
research) but no numbers regarding military personnel. These people
definitely live in a different world to my own. The irony is, when
they wake up one morning to find their idealistic world shattered
by sniper fire and broken glass the soldier still protects them.
I would wonder how mankind will miraculously stop engaging in war.
At the risk of sounding realist, I'd like to know how this will
happen. Do you think that everyone has the same values as you do?
So, in the end, to prove the point, some people are willing to take
up arms, to kill in order to make that point. Including attacks
on innocent civilians. So, somehow we are to negotiate with armed
bandits or militia, militaries without protection. In an ideal world
this would be great. Everyone would lay down their arms and be all
buddy buddy. If you want to be neutral and stay out of everyone
else's arguments... well, you need to ask the Swiss exactly what
needs to be done to promote and preserve that. You either ally yourself
with strong partners, or you form your own very strong well organised
Defence Force - which is exactly that, in the business of Defending
your principles tooth and nail. World War Two showed this as far
as the aforementioned country is concerned, from a military standpoint.
Yet such groups dismiss the concept of having a standing Army at
all. This is where the whole notion just falls flat.
On Saturday May 5, 2007 the following two letters
were published in the Dominion Post:
Valerie Morse (Letters, May 2) must be well
on the way to becoming a Green party list MP.
Richard Gooch, Khandallah
Valerie Morse (Letters, May 2) claims our
frigates have been in Afghanistan since the beginning of the current
war six years ago. What a pity she never studied geography or
bothered even to consult an atlas. Had she done so, she'd have
discovered, no doubt to her surprise, that Afghanistan is landlocked.
P Hills, Bulls
Dictates of the Thought Police
George Orwell would have nodded had he read
Valerie Morse's comments (Letters, May 2). To justify her gross,
insensitive and disrespectful intervention in the Anzac Day dawn
service, she wants us to believe that peacekeeping is war.
We have to recognise, according to Ms Morse's
twisted logic, "the hypocrisy of a government engaged in
18 military missions" and that militaries exist only to wage
war. This is in a straight line from the dictates of the thought
police in Orwell's "Peace is war, freedom is slavery, ignorance
is strength". It is the language of totalitarianism.
The truth, of course, is that today's missions
of the New Zealand military abroad are sanctioned by the United
Nations or involve working in other multilateral efforts to uphold
peace, shut wars down. They have been at it for well over 50 years.
Military people are involved for the very
reason that peace operations are often dangerous and require discipline,
understanding and restraint. More of that would be welcome from
Ms Morse and her pals.
Denis McLean, Khandallah
I can see that perhaps, like my previous round of
Letters to the Editor, I needn't actually contribute to the debate.
Others are readily at hand to do same and are often somewhat more
articulate than I. P Hills most certainly verifies the lack of forethought
by some individuals making it so easy to counteract such behaviours
and words. In any case, here goeth my words...
Concerning Protests on Anzac Day
Valerie Morse (Letters, 2 May) believes that
militaries only exist to wage war. Peacekeepers are hardly equipped
to wage war with anyone. Further more, the military is the sole
institution in our society with complete logistical networking,
equipments, personnel and training capable of dealing with major
disasters. They constantly assist the Police, SAR efforts. They
teach all manner of non-combat trades. They remind us how horrific
war can be when it comes calling, that to be unprepared for it
tempts fate.
Perhaps Peace Action Wellington could face
a BM21 truck, just one, launching a single salvo of Katushya rockets
on Island Bay – 760 kilograms of High Explosive. Their diplomacy
skills would work wonders on the crew. I for one could not trust
them to protect my family, those I love from such a threat.
Don’t insult the honour of our troops
who will and have put their lives on the line to stop such things.
No, this doesn’t happen in New Zealand. In many countries
around the world, it sure does.
The same skills of diplomacy could have been
put to good effect to persuade Hitler, Pol Pot or Idi Amin, I’m
sure. They sure didn’t work on Anzac Day.
Leon T. Harrison
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