The furore over the publication of photos of SAS soldiers in Afghanistan brings to light a couple of issues.

1. The nature of the SAS work in Afghanistan. What is described in the story today is pretty disturbing. Phil Goff outlined Labour’s reasoning for not commiting SAS troops at this time, (emphasis added before howls of “Labour deployed the SAS”) and this story re-inforces that. New Zealanders can be rightly proud of the work our Provincial Reconstruction Team has been doing. However the overall conflict in Afghanistan has gone in a different direction and the SAS appear to be right in the thick of that.

2. The policy around commenting or not commenting on the SAS has been thoroughly compromised in recent times. From my perspective it really is an all or nothing situation. If there is a policy not to comment then leave it at that. If we decide that modern communications and other countries agenda make that impractical then accept that. But having John Key confirm that the SAS were in a particular situation, and then criticise the media for investigating further and publishing photographs is ridiculous.

Actually there is a third matter. The reaction from the New York Times blogger who originally reported the SAS role shows that blogging does not always involve research, and can lead to some shoddy reporting!