Entry 253, on 2005-11-22 at 14:53:16 (Rating 3, Politics)
New Zealand has indicated it is unlikely to send more troops into Afghanistan to help compensate for the decreasing American presence there. New Zealand has a small force (of less than 200) there working on reconstruction and security. New Zealand had no part in the original war, and I think it is appropriate to help with peace-keeping and rebuilding, even if the current situation is not directly our fault.
Some military leaders and others who support the American actions in Afghanistan are suggesting we should be doing more, but should we? Why are the Americans reducing their numbers and creating a gap which other countries must fill? They went in there to start with, entirely for their own benefit, now they want to leave and let other countries clean up? Yeah right. Don't they have a responsibility to stay there until a reasonable level of stability is reached? Or maybe they need greater numbers in the second mess they have created in Iraq so that Afghanistan doesn't interest them any more.
Comment 1 (155) by JT on 2005-12-16 at 21:25:31:
We should help more in Iraq and Afghanistan if we can. So what if the Americans are leaving? We should still do as much as we can.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please leave a message below.
You can leave comments about this entry using this form.
To add a comment: enter a name and email (optional), type the number shown, enter a comment, click Add. Note that you can leave the name blank if you want to remain anonymous. Enter your email address to receive notifications of replies and updates to this entry. The comment should appear immediately because the authorisation system is currently inactive.