A smoking gun that proves devious Defence cover-up

This is not an attack on our SAS soldiers. This is a simple request for the truth.

For a moment, just strip away any emotion or negative feelings you may have towards author Nicky Hager and journalist Jon Stephenson. Focus instead on just the facts in their new book Hit & Run.

It appears they have got this spot on. The truth matters, especially given it is the first casualty of any war. I want to defend the writers’ honour. These men have produced a fine piece of investigative journalism.

Don’t let your prejudice get in the way of what I believe is a very dark and devious cover-up by our Defence Force and a complicit Government.

We were told in 2010 by the Defence Force that our SAS soldiers had led a raid on two villages that killed a bunch of evil insurgents and that no civilians lost their lives.

We believed them. We thought of them as heroes. It was a lie.

It was a dreadful and deceitful coverup when Defence bosses knew only too well what happened. And Cabinet ministers followed like blind sheep. They have accepted the cover-up for too long.

We have waited more than six years for the truth to emerge. The establishment misled us and we don’t have to accept that – nor should we.

There were no insurgents killed that day, yet six civilians lost their lives, including a 3-year-old girl, and 15 others were injured.

Stephenson has good sources. He has put his arse on the line and in the line of fire in Afghanistan.

Hager and Stephenson have deliberately left emotion and editorialising out of this book.

In many ways they have downplayed it and been cautious.

The inconvenient facts stand. Former defence minister Wayne Mapp couldn’t hold the state line a second longer and accepted this week that civilians died and awful things happened. He has done what Defence and the Government refused to do. He was open. He was honest. He has shown them up.

I was in Afghanistan with John Key in April 2010 just before all this went down. I certainly didn’t see much evidence of reconstruction work.

I saw a military very much on edge as insurgents moved closer. Key told me his advice was we’d lose a soldier soon as fighting intensified. He was right. War is ugly. Civilians can quickly become collateral damage.

And this is not an attack on our SAS soldiers. This is a simple request for the truth.

Because we should demand our leaders tell us the truth, why should we accept being misled? Our Defence bosses have got too good at it. Why should misleading us become a standard and trusty weapon?

Prime Minister Bill English, his ministers and Defence bosses do us a huge disservice by continuing to repeat the lies of the past. It’s time to do a Mapp and accept the truth. Most New Zealanders understand war ain’t pretty.

Remember, in politics it’s often the cover-up, not the crime, that catches you out. On this occasion the official response has been disappointing but not surprising. English has a conscience, he can be better than this.

It’s politically gutsy to push out the retirement age – perhaps English can show some more guts by opening up the files and ordering an inquiry.

No doubt the timing of Hit & Run‘s release was partly to coincide with John Key’s valedictory speech.

And despite what I have said above, it doesn’t take away or sour his eight years as prime minister in my view.

I’m not surprised he’s gone. I spent a night on the town with him 10 years ago after he became National’s leader and he told me then he’d like to do three terms and then pack it in. He also floated the idea that night that Bill could take over.

I rate Key and before him, Helen Clark, as our two best prime ministers ever.

Both read the public mood well, both understood MMP, both had a killer instinct and both were overwhelmingly pragmatic.

Key could have done more with his political capital – but being popular mattered above all else in the end.

He had his critics and haters. But the reality is we are still an overwhelmingly successful country with a strong economy where hundreds of thousands of immigrants are banging down the door to get in.

And that’s also the criticism of him too – he let in too many people, didn’t address a housing crisis and the gap between rich and poor widened.

Yet I still say we’ve been lucky to have both Clark and Key. Australia would have taken both of them in a heartbeat.

Thanks for your service, John. I know you’ll enjoy being out of Parliament.