Phil Goff

By Peter Wilson of NZPA

Wellington, Aug 18 NZPA - Opposition parties argued in Parliament today that the Government made the wrong call when it decided to send the SAS to Afghanistan.

During a snap debate the Labour Party, the Greens, the Maori Party and the Progressive Party said there were better ways to help bring peace to the country.

The Government announced last week it was sending 70 SAS troops to Afghanistan for 18 months in three rotations, the fourth time they will have been deployed there.

Labour leader Phil Goff said that when the last deployment returned in late 2005, the previous government decided against another mission.

"The big difference was that the conflict had moved from being about rooting out the international terrorist forces of al Qaeda to a much more local conflict between disparate ethnic and religious elements," he said.

"I don't believe Afghanistan can be reconstructed today from the top down...and we should not pretend the conflict is a simple one between good and evil.

"The values of the current Afghan government are such that many of us find it hard to sacrifice New Zealand lives to protect what is happening there."

Mr Goff said the provincial reconstruction team in Bamyan province, run by about 140 Defence Force personnel and which the Government intends drawing down over time, was a much better way to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.

Green Party MP Keith Locke said the international offensive had strengthened the Taleban.

"They have cloaked themselves in the mantle of Afghan nationalism against foreign invaders ... they are recruiting new fighters hand over fist, the US-led effort the SAS will be part of has been counter-productive," he said.

"One brutal military truth is you can't win a war if the government you are defending isn't worth defending."

Mr Locke said dialogue and reconciliation was needed between the factions in Afghanistan.

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira said it was not New Zealand's war.

"The SAS should not be going. We should not be in Afghanistan with forces that are dedicated to nothing other than attacking other people," he said.

"What on earth are we Maori people doing, flying across to the other side of the world to fight and kill people who are doing nothing else but defend their homeland."

Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the international coalition's strategy was changing and the Government had responded to requests from the US, the UK and Australia.

"The level of violence in Afghanistan has been rising, the government of Afghanistan has been less than successful in extending its authority throughout the country," he said.

"The further deployment of the SAS is our contribution to the renewed efforts of the coalition's military forces to improve security so that the non-military aspects of the international effort can be implemented in a sustained fashion."

Mr McCully said he agreed that military force alone would not achieve international objectives.

"But those objectives will not be achieved without military responses to the insurgency."

Mr McCully said the Government considered all its options and closely examined New Zealand's total commitment to Afghanistan when it made the decision to send the SAS.

"Above all other considerations, the Government decided a further deployment of the SAS was in the best interests of New Zealand and New Zealanders," he said.

"New Zealanders are highly mobile, they travel in planes, they stay in hotels, they stay in resorts.

"When terrorists strike around the world, the chances are New Zealanders will be at risk."