REVIEW: Vital exposé, but it would have been better with more context

Abstract

Hit & Run, by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson. Nelson: Potter and Burton. 2017, 159 pages. ISBN ISBN 978-0-947-50339-0. HIT & RUN tells what happened when a small group of New Zealand SAS soldiers in Afghanistan decided to mount a revenge raid on two Afghan villages where they thought Taliban they believed had been responsible for the death of one of their own were staying. With Ministerial approval, relying on faulty intelligence and backed by American firepower, the SAS raided the villages of Naik and Khak Kuday Dad on the night of 22 August 2010. Their Taliban targets were nowhere to be found: They had slipped away into the mountains and were resting peacefully when the SAS arrived by helicopter in the middle of the night.

Keywords

• Afghanistan
• investigative journalism
• New Zealand
• reviews
• SAS
• war reporting