Kech, given the distance and interests New Zealand has in Afghanistan, compared with those of the USA and Europe,
Checked a globe lately? Do you know what an "alliance" is?
I have a hard time thinking why New Zealand should send any troops at all.
Well, at one time, we THOUGHT you were part of the Western Alliance.
Got THAT wrong, we did.
Given the history of how our "friends" the USA, Britain, France have treated New Zealand, I wonder why New Zealand even bothered with helping fight Nazis in WWII. Or course, in those days, NZ was part of the British Empire, the British Commonwealth and was integrated through monarchy, legal system, financial and commercial interests, family ties and whatnot. So it was understandable.
Weren't you just telling me how BRAVELY NZ stepped up to the plate? Now it turns out the Brits twisted yuour arm? Which story are you trying to sell?
Given the history of the last 20 or 30 years, when France conducted the first and only state-backed terrorist act in New Zealand and the indifference of Britain and the USA. Not to mention various other unfriendly acts, I wonder with friends like that, who needs enemies?
What are you referring to here?
Hey, we all know the frogs wouldn't do anything like that. :-)
It is not surprising that New Zealand is cosying up to China as a major trading partner. They seem to be happy to buy stuff from New Zealand and don't go around rattling sabres at us,
Yet.
I'm not too worried about anyone attacking New Zealand and needing USA support. If it's in the interests of the USA to help defend NZ, we'll get defended, whether we like it or not. If it's not in the interests of the USA to help defend NZ, we won't get any help whether we beg or not, pay cash or not.
Care to cite a case of us defaulting on our mutual-defense pacts?
Fortunately, we have a big moat
Weren't you criricizing the US for relying on its Big Moat (the Atlantic Ocean) to keep it safe from WW2? Now you claim this attitude as a VIRTUE?
Have you no shame?
Though the French came up with a good one and I dare say there were discussions in the USA higher-ups whether NZ should be taught a lesson or not.
Maybe it should.
It was notable that USA intelligence didn't have a clue that the French were planning an attack in support of nuclear bomb testing down this way and the USA was quite sanguine about that. Afterwards, it was no big deal.
Would it have helped you if we nuked France?
Sure would have helped us, although I doubt the Brits would have appreciated.
OH. I missede the part where France nuked or otherwise attacked NZ. Did it?
I note that while Britain was being bloodied by IRA bombs, including the Brighton bombing which nearly killed the British government, the USA was okay with USA citizens funding such "freedom fighters"
Unlike NZ, apparently, the US is not a dictatorship.
This Gerry Adams?
"The strategy adopted by Sinn Fein leadership, headed by Gerry Adams, played a significant part in the Irish Republican Army's courageous announcement on 31 August 1994 of ``a complete cessation of military operations.''"
sinnfein.org
and was hosting good old Gerry Adams at the White House or somewhere official. I am glad that some of those IRA funders were killed in the Twin Tower collapse.
Go screw yourself.
Now, belatedly, the USA seems to have figured out that such terrorist acts are not always such a good thing. Some of us could be grateful for that conclusion. It's a shame so many innocent people died to force the conclusion on them.
It MIGHT just surprise you to learn that hardly all Americans supported the IRA. I am of Irish ancestry and have never considered them anything but a terrorist outfit.
I note too that the USA didn't join in the NATO action against Argentina by Britain. Presumably NATO wasn't quite one for all and all for one after all. Maybe the fine print said - "Only if it's the USSR". An attack on one wasn't considered an attack on all.
The Falklands War was NOT a NATO action. I defy you to show otherwise.
My father's cousin, a decorated hero of WWI, was imprisoned for speaking out against WWII and war in general, as a pacifist.
This I don';t find surprising. Pacifism is hereditable mental illness.
So much for freedom of speech. That would be like gaoling all those who are questioning being in Iraq. While Ormond Burton was in prison, my father was in the desert fighting Rommel and co, away from home for 4 years, on behalf of people who were not going to show much appreciation at all, but were instead going to give him a kick in the bum as he left.
YOU POOR THING! Maybe you people should have revolted too.
I would not now volunteer to go to Afghanistan and definitely not to Iraq.
That's because you're a coward. You admitted it above.
<Afghanistan and have even lost a Kiwi or two in a jeep roll over but even on a per capita basis the contribution is probably behind the French. > See what I mean? Why bother going where even when you are busy doing it, those who you are helping couldn't care less? As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.
I feel SO SORRY for you.
Given the numbers of Moslems in France, and England, from that region, not to mention gas and other interests, such as Iran over the fence, Pakistan next door, I think there is probably good cause for NATO to take a much greater interest in Afghanistan than NZ should. Russia is up the road too.
So how long do you think it will be before they come to get YOU? Or are you planning on that moat you criticized so harshly? |
