The SAS decision

Claire Trevett in the NZ Herald reports:

Mr Key said he was assured by the Chief of the Defence Force that the SAS’s world cup commitments would not be compromised by the small contingent remaining in Afghanistan.

He expected it to be the last deployment in Afghanistan and said the SAS had requested it to allow troops to complete their work with the crisis response unit so it could continue on without them. He believed the SAS was best placed to assess the situation, so he had taken the request on board.

I think it is sensible to finish a job they have started, and helping train up the Afghan Crisis Response Team is a job which won’t extendon forever.

Although Labour had previously sent the SAS to Afghanistan, its leader Phil Goff opposed the 2009 deployment saying the Afghan Government was clearly corrupt. Yesterday he repeated his concerns, saying New Zealand should instead focus on reconstruction in Bamiyan.

I despair that Labour though all principles to the wind in a desperate gasp for publicity. If the Government is too corrupt to have the SAS remain, then logically it is too corrupt to have the Provincial Reconstruction Team remain also.

I find it almost amusing that Labour sent the SAS to Afghanistan when George W Bush asked for them, but say we should say “fuck off” to the US when nobel peace prize winner Barack Obama asks for them.