On Friday the war in Afghanistan took another bad turn. Taliban guerillas hijacked a couple of fuel tankers in the northern province of Kunduz. The NATO occupiers responded in typical fashion by calling in an airstrike. Result: 90 dead civilians. The war in Afghanistan critically depends on winning and retaining the hearts and minds of Afghans. NATO has just graphically demonstrated - again - that they do not care about Afghan lives, and will murder as many innocent people as it takes to get one enemy fighter. To put it mildly, this is a grossly counterproductive strategy.
Thanks to John Key, we are now in this up to our necks. Kiwi soldiers could be calling in those airstrikes, and committing war crimes so that the US does not have to admit the obvious: that it has once again lost a land war in Asia. This isn't just bad because it invites retaliation and is harmful to our international reputation - it is also deeply immoral. We should not be fighting this war, and we certainly should not be helping the US fight it in this way, with total disregard for the people we are supposed to be protecting. And if the US refuses to adhere to international humanitarian law in Afghanistan, then we should refuse to participate.
