Re: [Marxism] British Service Personnel Abused By Members Of British Public

[Live session user <johnedmundson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 2008-03-08 at 16:30 +1000, gary.maclennan@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> I would say that Paul is right here and there is an air of desperation
> around the British public's reaction to the Iraqi and Afghanistan
> wars.  It is interesting how the strategy of making Afghanistan the
> "good" war has slowly but inevitably failed. The principal factors
> involved include of course the fact that the war is being lost or at
> least not being won. Secondly the Karzai Govt is increasingly seen for
> the farce that it is.
> 
> Here in Australia the commitment to Afghanistan has not come under the
> same scrutiny that the Iraqi venture has, but that too will change.

In New Zealand, the Afgan war seldom makes the news, but when it does,
it is always in the context of the comparatively sophisticated
nationalism Helen Clark's Labour government has managed to cultivate
over their years in office. In fact, I think the most enduring legacy of
the Clark government might well be the rebirth of significant
nationalist sentiment in the New Zealand populace.

New Zealand has no troops in Iraq, and when it did, the Clark government
was careful (and shrewd) enough to do so only within the context of UN
sanctioned reconstruction work. This meant that NZ could participate,
stay reasonably on side with the US, yet at the same time appease the
anti-war sentiments of a significant number of NZ voters, particularly
those who support Labour or its coalition partners and allies.

New Zealand did however, very early in the piece, vote unconditional
support to the US over 9/11 and has an ongoing troop commitment in
Afghanistan. Again, this is painted as peace keeping and reconstruction
work - NZ scored the Bamian deployment; in propaganda terms probably the
best possible outcome for a New Zealand trying to portray itself in the
best possible light. Journalists from the state and private broadcasters
make periodic pilgrimages to Bamian to interview officers about the
wonderful work they are doing in school reconstruction and to report on
how well loved the Kiwi soldiers are. This is not dissimilar to the
reporting on the NZ role in East Timor and the NZ Army take great pride
in the (quite possibly true) claim that they are much more successful at
winning over the local population than the US army is. This is of course
one of the great advantages for NZ - we are not seen as a big
international bully dominating other parts of the world. Actually we are
just playing "good cop" to the US and others' "bad cop".

Significantly though, on July 2 2007, the first Victoria Cross for New
Zealand was awarded for an incident which occurred in Afghanistan in
2004. (New Zealand recently broke with the British honours system and
established its own, itself a part of the successful cultivation of
national pride in NZ.)

This is significant for two reasons. The first is that, while Corporal
Willy Apiata's action was no doubt brave - he rescued a wounded comrade
under fire - I doubt it would have met the stringent criteria for the VC
under the old system. The award was, in my opinion entirely political.
The awarding of the VC gave NZ a war hero and something to feel suitably
jingoistic about. The incident was milked for all it was worth by
politicians and the media with not a word about what right the NZ Army
had to be in Afhanistan in the first place. You can't sully the guy's
moment of adulation with messy questions like that.

Secondly, Apiata was in Afghanistan as a serving member of the SAS - the
elite special forces unit of the NZ Army. No, they weren't rebuilding
Taliban-destroyed schools in Bamian. Apparently, Apiata and his unit
came under fire from 20 enemy fighters and he carried a bleeding comrade
70m to safety. This is the sort of detail we NEVER get about the
deployment of the SAS. Normally, we actually hear NOTHING at all about
what the SAS are up to but suddenly we were subjected to gushing reports
in support of a (in my view) questionable award.

The Clark government has negotiated a successful path between anti-nuke,
peace making rhetoric on the one hand, and, admittedly small scale,
jingoistic militarism on the other. Oh yes, Afghanistan is definitely
painted as the "good war" over here.
Cheers,
John


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