Let the SAS do its job

OPINION: It  seems everyone is on the SAS band wagon at the moment, writes Mark Wilson in this week's Mate.

The NZ Herald started the ball rolling after publishing a large photo of two New Zealand SAS personnel on duty in Kabul.

It didn't take any large degree or intelligence or a super computer to identify celebrated soldier Willie Apiata as one of those depicted.

From here the argument has snowballed with the picture being splashed around our interconnected society to all parts. It seems there is a conflict of opinion as to whether we have the right or in fact even need to know what our elite soldiers are up to in the world's hot spots.

I'm never short of an opinion or two so deemed it almost compulsory for me to wade into the melee.

Do we have the right to know what our elite soldiers are doing, do we in fact need to know and should we know?

The armchair conspiracy theorists, who have spent too much time on Wikipedia and not enough time in the real world, would of course argue that the Government must disclose to us all of its activities no matter how boring and mundane they are in reality. This would probably serve to deflate these theorists or have them crying from the rooftops that it was still a cover-up and there really are aliens running the Beehive.

Have we watched too many movies, do we really think there is some smoke screen created in Wellington – a sort of hologram illusion that shows us a working parliament of paper filers and speech makers when really there is a spy base watching our every move and deciding what information our regular Joe Brains can handle?

Or is it in fact that some things we just don't need to know, can derive no benefit from knowing and the sheer fact that we know them may jeopardise our own country(persons)men and their families.

How well do you all know Kabul? I couldn't tell you Taliban St from Terrorist Lane but that information may mean a lot to a local lad intent on blowing himself up and taking a first class ticket to his so-called 99 virgin afterlife.

What good does it do me in Southland to know where Willie and the lads are staying and who they are meant to be killing? Nothing.

It may raise concerns and debate about whether they should be there but I can't just fire up the silver bullet, throw it in 5th, drive them home.

I wouldn't be keen on taking their place nor, if I did, having my movements broadcast in the media for my enemies to see.

Willie and his crew do us proud, have a great reputation aboard and whether or not we think they should be there, now that they are let's help them stay alive any way we can. They are Kiwis, aren't they? Just like us, not just robots working for John Key on search and destroy.

Let them do their job and hope they all come back alive.

» Mark Wilson is a true southern man who took on the job of escorting a Speight's Ale House during a 10-week voyage to London in 2007.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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