By Patrick Gower
The Taliban is saying that more Kiwi troops are going to die in Afghanistan, and a New Zealand private security operator who works there agrees.
Jack Waldron fears it'll be by another improvised explosive device, or IED, and warns the New Zealand gear is just too vulnerable. He should know – he has been blown up himself.
His vehicle was at the front of a convoy in Afghanistan when it was hit by a roadside bomb. One man was killed. Mr Waldron was inside, but he survived.
“There's a big white flash,” says Mr Waldron. “The heat from the blast squeezes the whole inside of you. You can't breathe.”
Mr Waldron has been hit by IEDs three times in Iraq and Afghanistan. After one blast, the private security company Mr Waldron was working for switched to mine-resistant vehicles, known as MRAPs.
Yet, after four deaths due to IEDs, Kiwi troops still don't have them. All four died in Humvees, and Waldron says it's wasting lives.
“The Kiwi soldiers, if they continue to ride around in these vehicles, we will see more bloodshed.”
The army maintains the latest Taliban bomb would have destroyed any vehicle, and the Government says troops have what they need.
“To the best of my knowledge, yes, I've never had a request where the CDF comes along and said, ‘We need this piece of kit,'" says Prime Minister John Key.
“I can tell you that similar bombs, if not bigger, have blown underneath some of these MRAPs that the Americans use and the troops have walked away,” says Mr Waldron.
What about the army's claim MRAPs are too top-heavy to be safe on Bamiyan's roads?
“What they have forgotten to say is there are other MRAPs of a smaller model that are more protective than the Humvee that can operate in Bamiyan,” says Mr Waldron. “The reason I say that is because I've used them.”
Despite the criticism from Mr Waldron and others, the Defence Force maintains it does not need MRAPs. Although there are still six months still to go before we leave Afghanistan, troops will not be getting them.
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