Defence Review 2009 (DR09) Public Consultation Phase Wgtn

New defence policy delivered to Minister An anti-war protest crashed Associate Minister of Defence Heather Roys consultation meeting over the new defence policy in Upper Hutt this afternoon. Four women interrupted Heather Roys speech to demand an end to New Zealands involvement in Afghanistan. The government has been hosting consultation meetings across the country for the last month in anticipation of issuing a new defence white paper which will chart out the course of the defence forces and defence procurement over the next decade. On this final meeting, local anti-war activists decided to take their suggestions for a new New Zealand defence policy along. The new policy has four points: -Disband the SAS -Sell the frigates -Close the spybases -Get out of Afghanistan Along with a bloody presentation of the new policy to the minister, the women demanded to know just exactly what the three NZDF troops were doing when they wrote on a bomb. Since, at the time this happened, New Zealand was only meant to have a provincial reconstruction team in Bamiyan Province and two staff officers at Bagram AFB, the presence of these soldiers at a site loading bombs is perplexing to say the least. Needless to say, the minister did not provide any insight into these activities. On a related note, the site of armed troops rolling through Wellington in armoured vehicles two weeks ago in preparation for duties involving providing security from Kabul airport deserves explanation. Since again, the NZDFs involvement has been as a reconstruction team far away from Kabul, and the recent deployment of the SAS who would not be conducting such duties, we wonder just exactly who these troops are and what they are doing. Which leads us back to the new defence policy. The first and foremost item on the policy agenda for the NZDF must be to get out of Afghanistan. The original justification for the invasion to catch the terrorist bin Laden gave way to purported aims of bringing freedom, democracy and rights for women which has also lost out to a preference for providing stability for the region in the form of Hamid Karzais corrupt puppet government . It is not without a certain irony that one could note pretty good stability under the previous Taliban government, just one not willing to do business with Washington. The US commander-in-chief is demanding more troops for this bloody escapade, bringing total troop numbers to 113,000. At the height of the soviet occupation, there were 115,000 troops in Afghanistan. This war is and has been a disaster for the people of Afghanistan. It seems unlikely to end without sustained action to bring the war home and make the occupiers feel the pain and suffering they are causing.