I'm not sure threatening to rape and kill helps prove NZ's involvement in Afghanistan is ethical

It's a fascinating social media lynching of Barbara Sumner Burstyn. I hope the people who set up the facebook site demanding Burstyn hand in her passport appreciate the irony of threatening to rape and murder her with a chainsaw to justify NZ's ethical deployment in Afghanistan.

What is so interesting is the speed and size of the backlash to Burstyn's comments. The ferocity of public anger at conscientious objectors from our previous wars is a history rarely examined in NZ and critics of war risk invoking a vicious response.

Those who buy into the authority structure seldom enjoy being told the sacrifice of war is wasted. The anger should be directed at our leaders who have asked our soldiers to put themselves in harms way for reasons not as wholesome as freedom or democracy.

We are in Afghanistan to ingratiate ourselves with America in their latest empire building binge. Our troops have been asked to hand over citizens to known torture units, we are propping up a corrupt narco state and the local building projects we have completed have been derided as overblown PR projects by independent reports.

I criticized the mainstream media's coverage as to why NZers are not aware of what we are actually doing in Afghanistan and the backlash at Burstyn's uncompromising comments highlight how effective the Defense Ministry's propaganda campaign has been.

I personally find the myopic focus on these NZ deaths difficult to justify when the Afghanistan people have suffered over 40 000 dead and injured, 250 000 externally displaced people and 500 000 internally displaced people.

Every hour of every minute of every second of occupying someone else's country must be justified and criticized, even when we find the criticism offensive.

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