Pointed criticism

How deceitful has NZDF been over Operation Burnham? Keigh Ng has put together a lovely data visualisation on the Herald, which challenges you to identify the villages and buildings from Hit and Run on commercially-sourced satellite photos. For most people, its a matter of ten or twenty seconds - a trivial amount of time compared to the 352 days NZDF took. And when you consider that they have rooms full of professional staff trained specifically in examining and analysing satellite imagery, it looks even worse. Almost as if they didn't want to do it, because that would mean admitting that their initial PR response was wrong...

When a government agency lies to the public like this, it needs to be held accountable. And when it lies to the public about murdering innocent people in our name, there is an even stronger case. We need an inquiry into NZDF's handling of this. But we also need a criminal investigation into their war crimes and apparent attempts to pervert the course of justice. As for its head, Lt General Tim Keating, who oversaw all this: he needs to be fired. Not allowed to retire quietly in three months as scheduled, but fired. But knowing the way NZDF operates, they'll probably recommend him for a knighthood.