The NZ Army has made Bamiyan safe—according to the NZ Army (21 April 2013)

“Security is not really a problem any more.”

The New Zealand Army has made Bamiyan safe—

according to the New Zealand Army

Radio NZ National, Insight, Sunday 21 April 2013.
Presented by Belinda McCammon

There’s a brilliant scene in the TV series Friday Night Lights, where young Matt Saracen is talking with his dad, who’s just come back from Iraq.

MATT SARACEN: How are things going over there?

HIS FATHER: [long, uncomfortable pause] Great. We’re building schools, fixing roads….

This is followed by a long, long pause, as father and son acknowledge the unspoken truth behind the pat, formulaic lie.

I was reminded of that superb piece of television when I listened to Insight this morning. New Zealand is finally pulling out of its unwise, unhappy, shameful, decade-long involvement in the occupation of Afghanistan. To finally get shot of it, the government sent over the Governor-General, the Minister of Defence and some compliant reporters, on this occasion required to fill the role of public relations people. One of those reporter/PR flacks was Belinda McCammon….

The mission to Afghanistan gets off to a very poor start with the planeload of New Zealand dignitaries stranded on the tarmac, unable to leave the plane because of “security concerns.”

Once they do get off the plane and into the heavily fortified New Zealand compound, the interviews are almost comical in their evasion of reality….

BELINDA McCAMMON: So is Bamiyan province making progress?
COMMANDER SHOLTO STEPHENS: Oh, definitely. Around this area there were several documented massacres of Hazara people by the Taliban. They now have good governance, security and sealed roads. So that’s three major ticks that they’ve got. Don’t try to tell them that the New Zealand involvement hasn’t been a success!

One voice above all others is almost sublime in its glibness and hypocrisy….

JONATHAN COLEMAN: We’ve done a lot to get rid of corruption. There’s still a need to build up institutions, like the public service. There’s lots we can be proud of.

But all the assurances and and all of the spin has obviously not convinced Belinda McCammon. She is a lot brighter and less biddable than other officially approved “journalists” who have been sent over there. She actually has the courage to undermine the words of Coleman and Commander Stephens….

BELINDA McCAMMON: But it’s hard to escape the feeling of uncertainty.

Then it’s back to the bullshit from the army spin merchants….

ARMY SPOKESMAN: The atmosphere here is benign. We are reasonably confident that the local security forces can manage the situation.

This is promptly undermined by radio time pips, and recordings of a recent news broadcast: “The Minister of Defence says that reality has come home to New Zealand troops in Afghanistan, after two New Zealand soldiers were killed overnight….”

And then another one: “New Zealand has lost three more soldiers, just a few days after the deaths of two of their colleagues in Bamiyan….”

Cut to a ceremony unveiling a memorial to New Zealanders who have died in Bamiyan. Belinda McCammon notes that the locals all have their faces covered. Obviously they do not share the bounding optimism of Jonathan Coleman and Sholto Stephens.

Somebody from the New Zealand Embassy vapors enthusiastically: “There’s a general air of prosperity here, you know. There’s endless possibility out there… a great WORLD of opportunity out there…President Karzai remarked to us over lunch that the GDP per capita has increased TEN-FOLD over the last ten years and I like to think we have played our part in that.”

Then we hear the Governor-General, Sir Jerry Mateparae, talking platitudinous nonsense as always: “Many challenges remain for Bamiyan and Afghanistan…The seeds we have sown together…”

There are 29 interpreters, plus their families, coming to live in New Zealand. The young interpreter who spoke to Belinda McCammon obviously does not believe any of the talk about Afghanistan being safer. He wants to get out as fast as possible.

Some pompous nonsense by Lt. Gen. Rhys Jones, and some sober analysis by Robert Ayson from Victoria University.

Final “analysis” is by the ever-positive Commander Sholto Stephens. “The locals have got a good grasp of the security situation,” he states, still maintaining that diligent air of high seriousness. “In fact,” he goes on, “security is not really a problem any more.” (Perhaps he’d forgotten that planeload of New Zealanders too afraid to even leave the plane at the airport.) The fact is, continues Commander Stevens, Afghanistan is simply engulfed by crime, which makes it no different to other places around the world.

So there we have it. According to the New Zealand Defence Force, all the crime and all the killings are a POSITIVE SIGN. Things are getting better! Every killing, every bombing, every standover, every act of extortion is a step to true liberation!

——————————————————————————————-

There was not a mention of the shameful episodes of New Zealand soldiers being browbeaten by American goons into breaking the law and handing over captive civilians to possible torture and summary execution. Of course, there is one respected and knowledgeable New Zealand journalist in Afghanistan: Jon Stephenson. He was not even mentioned, let alone interviewed. Instead we got to hear the rigorously on-message voices of Jonathan Coleman, Lt. Gen. Rhys Jones, Sholto Stephens, a vapid diplomat, and the Governor-General.

Belinda McCammon, or her editors, did a splendid job of undermining these official lies by playing those radio news broadcasts straight after the lies; however, an assessment of New Zealand’s foreign policy requires robust and rigorous analysis, not ironic counterpointing. Irony is the resort of the weak, the fearful and the heavily censored. We need honest and forthright journalism. Belinda McCammon did a good job, but she is no Jon Stephenson.

Here’s a more honest assessment of the situation in Bamiyan….
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203630604578072620297779196.html

And here’s why the Governor-General could be looking at a date with the International Criminal Court….
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1104/S00150/has-gov-general-designate-jerry-mateparae-misled-the-nation.htm

• Paul8.1

  21 April 2013 at 11:05 am

  There’s a documentary on Wednesday evening on Maori T.V. at 8.30 p.m. that ‘challenges New Zealand’s Role in Afghanistan.’ It’s called ‘He Toki Huna: New Zealand in Afghanistan’.
  • Morrissey8.1.1

    21 April 2013 at 3:25 pm

    Thanks for that, Paul. I shall watch with high interest.