’’ The goal is not to win the war.”
Interview of ‘Heti Válasz’ with Csaba Hende, Minister of Defence in an edited shortened version.

- Do you remember the things you said on the 20th August swearing-in ceremony about whom the Hungarian soldier serves?

- Of course I do. I said that he serves solely the homeland and the Hungarian national interests not those of an empire, ideology or business group.

- Then last Monday a Hungarian soldier was killed in Afghanistan. What are we searching for there, if we do not subject soldiers to the interests of empires?

- We serve a value-based community not an empire. We are there having a UN mandate; 28 NATO members and another 18 countries attempt to accomplish the operations. Hungary’ security is guaranteed by the NATO. A majority of 85 per cent of the Hungarian people have expressed their opinion at a referendum. They wanted to become a member of the NATO requiring this guarantee. In return we are ready to provide the same to other members. If any of the countries are attacked they will face all the members of NATO automatically. However, the United States was attacked by terrorists on 11th September 2001. The mission in Afghanistan is right legally and morally, as well, we could not have dropped out of it.

- Let’s assume if the Slovakians as a NATO member attacked us, NATO would not defend us.

- These are phantasmagorias, it cannot happen in the heart of Europe, so this question is not worth answering, at all.

- But there is an other question which seems to be important to answer: the war in Afghanistan has been lasting for nine years, and it is impossible to win. Shouldn’t we return home at last?

- Not completely. The goal is not to win the war.

-What is the objective then?

- It is crucial that the local government should guarantee stability and the country should not become the territory of terrorists. It shouldn’t be a shelter for those ruining the New-York Twin Tower once, another time shooting Hungarian soldiers with an armour-piercing missile. Hungarian soldiers who are building schools, drilling wells… That’s what our war heroine Judit Ábrahám did. She has never done any harm; she hasn’t served in combat troops. That’s what we are searching for there.

- You are an officer in reserve. Would you die for the homeland?

- I have been to Afghanistan. I have visited all the operational theatres where the Hungarian troops serve. I travelled by the same HUMVEE our war heroine was killed in. There’s no defence against armour-piercing missiles, however. But the soldiers have no intention to die. The aim is to complete the mission. All the soldiers feel this way- they would even risk their lives to achieve the goal.

(András Stumpf, Heti Válasz)