Barry Soper: Little doubt in what SAS inquiry will come up with

Authors Nicky Hager, (left), and Jon Stephenson with their book, Hit & Run. Photo / Mark Mitchell

There was never any doubt that Labour was going to order an inquiry into what went on in Afghanistan almost eight years ago when the SAS was involved in a raid, along with American helicopter gunships, on two remote villages.

And there's little doubt in what this inquiry, with two million bucks being thrown at it for starters, will come up with - the allied forces were under fire and responded.

Tragically six civilians were killed, but even the definition of some of those "civilians" is debatable given what the Attorney General David Parker tells us.

He's now seen video of the raid and says claims in the book Hit and Run, written by Nicky Hagar and Jon Stephenson, that they were defenceless villages he doesn't accept, he thinks there were armed people present.

He doesn't only think it, he obviously knows it having seen the video.

There were two descriptions of the villages under fire in the book.

The first said they "contained only a few farmers and mostly women, children and elderly people."

The second said they were mainly occupied by "women, children and the elderly when the troop carrying helicopters and Apache gunships arrived."

Both accounts fail to mention armed rebels in the villages, now acknowledged by Parker. So in reality this was a firefight and unfortunately some innocents lost their lives, which tragically happens in war zones.

So why have an inquiry?

The acknowledgement by Parker would seem to have sealed the fate of the book's veracity.

It's a waste of money and the claim by Parker that the controversy hasn't died down is flimsy.

But on the upside it could restore the public's faith in our Defence Forces if you accept restoration's necessary.

The Chief of Defence at the time was Jerry Mateparae who'll be playing host to Jacinda Ardern as our High Commissioner in London next week.

He managed to dodge the bullet last year when it came to defending the forces over the raids, that was left to the current chief, Tim Keating who's shortly stepping down from the job, a decision he made, the Government insists, before this inquiry was decided on.

Yeah well, he must have known one was coming though, former Labour leader Andrew Little insisted last year there'd be one.

A couple of people will be happy enough with the inquiry, those conducting it including former Labour Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer.

But surely the money would have been better spent on the mould and leaks at Middlemore Hospital.