Posted on 08/17/2005 1:59:18 AM PDT by shaggy eel
~
ping
,,, that's what a vegetarian diet does to you. Imagine turning up to the office to not comment.
Didn't New Zealand disband its airforce two years ago? What is impotence worth?
John Kerry for president of New Zealand!
IMO, I think NZ is a little nervous about China.
,,, there's a 757 or two and some clapped out C-130s. Ask your guys serving in the Gulf. There's still some transports being flogged up that way. It's our combat wing that was sold off to some training school in Arizona or somewhere to pay for the "arts/gay" vote here with "arts" funding.
,,, John Kerry would be a big step up from the thing that's running our show right now.
Can't we all just get along??....
,,, the Chinese own the Panama Canal and an awful lot in US Treasury bonds. I'd say we're more concerned about the US funding China's military expansion with all those cheap imported goods made with slave labour.
,,, somewhere off Singapore?
Anyone to the right of Barbara Boxer would be a conservative here. Heck, we are so much like Ontario of Canada (the only part of Canada that counts in the national government) that we like to think of ourselves as "sensible conservatives" when in fact we vote for straight centre-leftists or wet conservatives in droves.
But to be fair, on issues that we are conservative we get VERY conservative, just like the mother country and Europe. Free trade and immigration are two such examples for NZ. And don't forget the droves of conservative ordinary Kiwis but more often than not they are already Australians or Americans or British.
,,, you're still here? I thought you'd be one of the 450 people a week leaving NZ for the bright lights of Kings Cross or Connaught Road. What keeps you here?
Family. I will see how things go over the next 5 years.
People reading all this should realise that while the New Zealand Defence Forces are small, and in some areas very unfortunate decisions have been made by the government, what they still have is of very high quality. New Zealand's soldiers, sailors and airmen are as professional as any on Earth - it's not their fault that their government doesn't always give them the tools they need to do their job.
New Zealand is definatley upping its international engagement on the weightier matters of global security it has previously ignored (geographically - it has always felt quite safe - now with globalisation etc I don't think New Zealanders feel quite as disconnected from the rest of the world as they did. I also understand there are Kiwi SAS troops currently serving in Afghanistan.
I was in Auckland in June and found I was sharing my hotel with General Musharrif and 90 (NINTEY!) members of his government (plus seemingly the entire New Zealand police force) - so they are definatley having hard core talks at the ultimate highest level with Pakistan too.
As my mother used to say to me - "It will do them good to get out more"!
,,, I think the Greens will do a lot better in the elections this time round. Traditional Labour voters will give their votes to the Maori Party or Destiny and the Greens this time round if they feel they've been sold out.
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