Valuable service

I don’t recall an instance previously where I have strongly disagreed with Gerry Cunneen’s statements.

His last letter, however, about the book Hit & Run, was well off the mark.

First, people like Nicky Hager provide a very useful service to the wider community and to all government agencies in that they are reminded that their decisions and actions will be questioned by someone, at some stage, whether the writer provides all supporting evidence for his claims or not.

The important point here is that they bring up for discussion and investigation issues that would have not attracted anyone’s attention otherwise.

Second, for issues of that nature we need to go below the surface and question why such events had the opportunity to take place. Specifically, why did New Zealand soldiers have to go to an inhospitable country and fight someone else’s war?

It was the Americans who started the whole ungodly affair, starting from George W Bush and Obama, doing exactly the same despite his pre-election promises, that created the situation that has cost many lives from many Western countries.

There are many more politics of ‘‘convenience’’ that need to be questioned and, Gerry, please don’t shoot the messenger.

NIK ZAHARIADIS Strathmore Park [abridged]