The SAS soldier killed in Afghanistan yesterday has been named. He was Lance-Corporal Leon Smith, aged in his mid-thirties. The Defence Force is not releasing any other details at this point.
Lcpl Smith is the second SAS member killed in combat in a short space of time. There are already calls for New Zealand troops to be brought home, but we agree wholeheartedly with Phil Goff's comment yesterday that now is not the time for that debate.
Leon Smith has tragically paid the ultimate price for serving Queen and Country. As a member of the elite SAS he will have been only too aware of the dangers inherent in deployment to such an unstable country as Afghanistan, but he accepted the deployment nonetheless, placing service above self.
Our thoughts, our prayers and our aroha are with Leon Smith's whanau, and his Defence Force colleagues. May they be comforted in their loss by the knowledge that he died doing what he believed had to be done. The familiar words of Laurence Binyon's For the Fallen seem especially poignant today, and we offer them as a tribute to Lance-Corporal Leon Smith's service and untimely death:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
8 comments:
Perhaps if NZ was not there, propping up a corrupt regime and currying favour with the US, families would not have to bear such grievous loss.
Why is it not the time for that debate, Inv2?
Let Leon Smith be brought home and laid to rest Robert. I'm sure that even you would not begrudge his whanau and friends that. Then we can debate the rights or wrongs of the SAS's deployment.
Phil Goff's comment was right on the money, and you won't hear that said here too often.
Thoughts to his family and colleagues, and I agree Inventory2, let him be brought home and laid to rest before debating the deployment.
I heard that his name was released before his family were ready because a large media organisation were going to put a photo and his name on their front page this morning, if this is true it is disgusting that the media have no respect for the privacy and wishes of his family just because the timing didn't suit them.
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Pushing the envelope here a bit Inv2, but there's an issue... we could debate the rights and wrongs of the SAS deployment, with regard the death of the first soldier who died there. My point is, what if there are more? We'll never get to talk about it, in deference to the fallen. In that light, how is it we are able to discuss the Christchurch earthquake? There are still regular quakes and there's likely to be another big one. What you say doesn't make logical sense. Plus, do you think the family of the dead man are reading your blog? Unlikely.
thanks you for your ultimate sacrifice Lance-Corporal Smith.
It was your sacrifice that allows us to have ignorant twats who won't let your family grieve and would rather gain a headline, or score a jibe point about corruption propagation. Our freedoms are only in existence because men like you and countless others put their lives on the line protecting those freedoms from ideologies that hate those very freedoms, and stop at nothing, including mass murdering innocent civilians
I respectfully disagree about discussion in this context(though certainly not with the need for the family to be told before the news is released). As this young man comes home to whanau and country, and receives all the respect that he deserves, others are still on the streets Of Kabul and district, taking that same risk, in circumstances that I believe are utterly unjustifiable, If you have observed the constant processions through Wootton Bassett in the UK, where every UK soldier lost in action is brought home, you will understand that respect for the fallen does not preclude aregument against the circumstances that have led to that loss. Thedre is no "best" timing for this. Our troops deserve better from our government and us. Others will not agree with me, but I believe that we let them down by sending them to an unprincipled and politically ambiguous war such as that in Afghanistan. It is, I suggest, our responsibiloity to speak out clear and loud - bring them back now.
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