By Michael Laws
This is not to suggest that the army reconstruction team, or the SAS, do so deliberately. It's just that, as foreigners in a hostile land, the odds do not favour any ready resolution. It was, perhaps, no slip that opposition leader Phil Goff got his geography wrong, and mentioned Vietnam in his public mourning.
Because we need to be honest: Afghanistan is the unwinnable war. The West want to take out the Taliban and their associated al Qaeda mates, and be home by Christmas. Christmas 2100, you get the feeling.
I won't bore you with a history lesson as to military conflict, invaders and the mountains of the Afghans. Suffice to say: these people are crazy. Their culture is to fight – whether perceived invaders or themselves.
Sure, some factions of Afghan society are crazier and nastier than others. But if your entire existence was dirt, opium, mountains and AK-47s – interspersed with institutional corruption and vicious clan clashes – then you would be crazy too.
New Zealand military forces are supposedly in that surreal country to bring peace and stability. We followed the United States in there as our bit for the western alliance – and a free trade agreement. And make no mistake – this is an intervention acutely tied to trade policy.
And it's what we've always done in the wake of the Anzus fallout, back up the Americans by backhand. The price for denying their sailors a bit of recreational sex in Auckland's Fort St knock-shops is to monitor their spy satellites and commit our troops to places nowhere near us.
Although Lieutenant O'Donnell's sacrifice was not in vain. I have little doubt that wherever Kiwi soldiers are centred, in that sparse and alien land, there is goodness. Kids are happier, parents safer, communities more stable.
Although the only way to keep them that way is to permanently station our troops. Because the place will go to ochre the moment that they leave.
And Lt O'Donnell and his military mates are advancing New Zealand's wider interests – strategic, political, economic and humanitarian. So his father can rest assured: most New Zealanders do not consider his death to be pointless. Indeed, the emotional reaction these past few days suggest that he will join Corporal Willie Apiata as an immortal face of Kiwi grit abroad.
But there is another reason that we should not collectively grieve too long or too hard. And that is that Tim O'Donnell knew exactly the danger he faced and the risk that he was taking. And he chose it regardless. He loved the military, he loved the challenges and he loved the excitement of conflict and muscular resolution.
Ad Feedback He was also a bona fide hero before the fatal ambush. His earlier actions in Timor Leste had been recognised by military honours and potentially saved the lives of scores of innocents. One surmises that the mere presence of himself and his colleagues in Bamyan repeats that feat on a daily basis.
So he knew that he stood a chance of dying. And, according to his proud, if sad, dad, he had no problem if the odds finally rolled against him. It is that conscious embrace of danger that I find most laudable in this young man's short life.
Which is the point the peaceniks forget. People join the military for the adventure. It is not compulsory. It's a choice. If that adventure includes military action – to kill or be killed – then that is the point of being at the pointy end of military operations.
Yes, in the grand scheme of things, one might consider his life to have been wasted. But you might make the same claim for every fallen soldier that we commemorate on Anzac or Remembrance Day. It is a waste of potential, and it is not. Sure, Lt O'Donnell's death won't solve or resolve anything that Afghanistan needs or wants. It simply reminds us of how intractable the conflict. But it should redouble our resolve.
We can't be everywhere on the planet where there is evil. But we can have Kiwis in some of those places, and they can make a local, if not universal difference.
Far from hastening the repatriation of our forces, Lt O'Donnell's death should make us reappraise that exit strategy. We need to be there for as long as we can make a difference... and that may be forever.
Yes, it may well mean – in fact, it is probably inevitable – that other Kiwi soldiers will be hurt, maimed and killed. But it is not for us to judge that risk: that is their conscious choice to make.
If they individually believe that there is no point to their role, then no one is compelling them to be posted. Quit now.
But let's not underestimate that our military are not simply peacekeepers, confined to directing traffic or ensuring that the water pumps have the right pressure.
When they join up, they accept the risk that they may face opposing forces dedicated to their death. With the ability to produce that intent.
They are not clerks. They are not hamburger flippers. They are not pre-school teachers or politicians.
They are warriors. Good warriors.
Let them be so.
Sunday Star-Times 10/8/2010