Harawira Hone: Urgent Debates — SAS—Deployment to Afghanistan 
Harawira Hone: Urgent Debates — SAS—Deployment to Afghanistan 
[Volume:656;Page:5605] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Speaker. There is an old saying that if the people who make the decision to go to war were the same people who had to actually go to war there would be a hell of a lot fewer wars. But it seems that that is still not the case. Politicians make the decisions but clearly it is other people the soldiers who die for those decisions. 
Afghanistan is not our war and the SAS should not be going. We should not be in Afghanistan with forces that are dedicated to nothing other than attacking people. We support provincial reconstruction absolutely but that is not what the SAS is being sent to Afghanistan for. Like most Kiwis I admire the professionalism commitment and skill that the SAS has shown in its recent deployments overseas. Like most Maori I cannot help but be proud of the achievements of our SAS because so many of them are Maori. But if I could ask a simple question it would be what on earth we Maori people are doing flying across to the other side of the world to fight and kill people who are doing nothing else but defending their own homeland. 
We all know why the Americans want the SAS back. In the SAS’s last three deployments it has shown that in its specialist role as a deep penetration patrol troop it is probably the best in the world. American troops generally do 1-day patrols but our guys are out for up to a month and they penetrate hundreds of kilometres into the countryside. 
Who are we are trying to kid here? People have been invading and trying to conquer Afghanistan for hundreds of years and in the end they have all given up. History tells us that neither Soviet-style Government nor Western-style democracy will take hold in Afghanistan and history has shown us that even massive huge occupying forces are eventually ground down and forced to leave. The USSR could not do it; now the USA is in there and it will not be able to conquer Afghanistan either. We know that because Barack Obama is already talking about pulling back into the cities rather than trying to hold the countryside. There are simply not enough troops to hold it all. 
We know too that America’s strategy for victory is not based on winning hearts and minds; it is based on overwhelming and indiscriminate firepower. The Americans apologise when they get it wrong they pay compensation but then they move on to the next village with the same attitude. The higher the number of innocent civilians killed the greater the resistance to the coalition forces. I ask myself whether we want to be part of that. 
On top of that the Taliban themselves are quite simply dedicated and ferocious fighters. Why would they not be? They have something to fight for: their families and their homeland. The world is now fully aware of how badly the Americans treat their so-called prisoners. The world knows well the stories of the torture of innocent civilians and of the untold killings of innocent civilians by American and other coalition forces. We know clearly the response from the Middle East to those who come into its homelands to rape its resources kill its people and take over its lands. We have seen it in New York we have seen it in London we have seen it in Bali and we nearly saw it in Sydney. 
So again I ask whether we really want to be part of that. Yes we can play a role and we are playing a role in provincial reconstruction in Afghanistan. New Zealand forces are gaining kudos from coalition and Afghan commentators for their skills commitment and ability to help communities to rebuild. But the answer to ending the war in Afghanistan is simple. The answer is for the USA and all other coalition forces to get out of Afghanistan and sooner rather than later. Western firepower will not outlast the rage of the people of Afghanistan who want all outsiders out. The people of Afghanistan will win. The United States already knows it to be true. Only the Afghan people can ultimately determine what sort of Government if any they want to have and we have no right to try to impose a system of Government on them that they have clearly shown they do not want. 
In the lead-up to the SAS decision John Key said that whatever decision we make it has to be made here in New Zealand with what is perceived to be in the best interests of New Zealand. They are whom I answer to: the New Zealand public. They are the people entitled to that answer—nobody else. The Maori Party has to question whether interfering in external disputes outside of our own territory is in the best interests of any New Zealander. 
The Government has announced that it will send more than 200 SAS soldiers to Afghanistan and we know that many of those soldiers will be Maori. We also know that the SAS will not be deployed in a peacekeeping role. The SAS is “the premier combat unit of the New Zealand Defence Force”. The SAS will join other special forces that have been described as hunter-killer units. 
The Maori Party holds true to our previous statements that denounce the glorification of war. We do not support our soldiers overseas fighting and killing civilians or aiding others to do so so why should we send our own to their aid? The military role that our Government has had in Afghanistan in the recent past has been covert in nature and we suggest that it is not about what is best for the people of Afghanistan. Our overseas aid money is being used by the military to wage war on innocent people. We care about the welfare of the innocent victims of war so we support the announcement of more civil aid as an approach to supporting people. 
This weekend the United States acting ambassador said there was tremendous international respect for New Zealand’s efforts in Afghanistan. New Zealand Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan do an excellent job in running a provincial reconstruction team which is used as a model for others. NATO routinely invites others to look at what New Zealand is doing and to try to imitate that elsewhere. About 140 of our Defence Force members have been operating the provincial reconstruction team in Bamian province since 2003. Given that situation it defies belief that our Prime Minister would recommend that the provincial reconstruction team be wound down. The provincial reconstruction team is about making a practical difference in infrastructure. 
In terms of our international responsibility every nation should examine its role in this so-called war on terror. We need to correct that phrase because it is no longer a war on terror; it is a war of terror. We would have preferred that the Minister of Defence consulted tangata whenua on overseas deployments to fight this so-called terrorism. What one calls terrorism depends on who one is and where one stands. In my office I have a poster that has a photo of four Apaches—Geronimo Yanozha Chappo and Fun. They are in the desert and are armed with muskets and rifles. The caption states: “Homeland security: fighting terrorism since 1492”. The photo makes it absolutely clear who they are and where they stand. They are no ordinary US citizens; they are tangata whenua and they have considered themselves to be fighting a war of terror against them ever since the British moved in and started taking over their homeland. When our SAS troops confront the enemy in Afghanistan it is unclear to me who is maintaining homeland security and who exactly is fighting terrorism. 
We do ourselves a grave injustice by being seen to be complicit in the war of terror against the people of Afghanistan. If we can help through provincial reconstruction then we will support that but we will not support the sending of New Zealand’s premier combat unit—the SAS—back into Afghanistan. Its role is defined very much by the American military presence and military direction. Tena koe. Kia ora tatou katoa.