Post by luke6745 on Oct 25, 2011 16:03:22 GMT 12
Labour would bring SAS home sooner
Labour would bring New Zealand's SAS soldiers home from Afghanistan within 90 days of assuming office.
The move was announced today as part of the party's defence policy.
It was originally embargoed to 7pm but was released early after the embargo was broken.
Defence spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway said Labour would bring the current rotation home within a month and a half and would not send another group.
The Provincial Reconstruction Team would remain in Bamiyan province until 2014.
" We should not be putting the SAS in the middle of a civil war between a corrupt government and a brutal, fundamentalist opposition, where allegiances are constantly shifting and accountability hard to establish," he said.
The National-led Government redeployed the SAS to Afghanistan in 2009 and the troops are due to come home in March 2012.
They work alongside the local Crisis Response Unit in Kabul.
Prime Minister John Key has yet to confirm another rotation would not be sent after next March.
Labour leader Phil Goff said he wanted to bring the SAS out of Afghanistan as soon as possible because they were caught between a corrupt regime and "an equally awful Taliban opposition".
"There's no way that we can win in the situation."
Long-serving soldier Doug Grant, a 41-year-old from Linton, was killed in August during an attack on the British Council diplomatic offices in Kabul and Leon Smith died in September after being shot in the head during a raid on a compound in Wardak province.
Goff said New Zealand had now been in Afghanistan for longer than it had been in the World Wars combined.
"We have been now a decade in Afghanistan, we cannot win a war in Afghanistan where the administration we are supporting is deeply corrupt and not winning the hearts and minds of its own people."
Labour would also retain Linton Army Camp, instead of going through with the proposed merge with Ohakea Airforce base, and would look at establishing a defence college in Palmerston North.
Lees-Galloway, also MP for Palmerston North, said Labour would put a halt on the civilianisation of the defence force until it was reviewed, explore the defence force's role in carrying out research and development and make sure all defence force bases were safe and secure.
- Stuff
Labour would bring New Zealand's SAS soldiers home from Afghanistan within 90 days of assuming office.
The move was announced today as part of the party's defence policy.
It was originally embargoed to 7pm but was released early after the embargo was broken.
Defence spokesman Iain Lees-Galloway said Labour would bring the current rotation home within a month and a half and would not send another group.
The Provincial Reconstruction Team would remain in Bamiyan province until 2014.
" We should not be putting the SAS in the middle of a civil war between a corrupt government and a brutal, fundamentalist opposition, where allegiances are constantly shifting and accountability hard to establish," he said.
The National-led Government redeployed the SAS to Afghanistan in 2009 and the troops are due to come home in March 2012.
They work alongside the local Crisis Response Unit in Kabul.
Prime Minister John Key has yet to confirm another rotation would not be sent after next March.
Labour leader Phil Goff said he wanted to bring the SAS out of Afghanistan as soon as possible because they were caught between a corrupt regime and "an equally awful Taliban opposition".
"There's no way that we can win in the situation."
Long-serving soldier Doug Grant, a 41-year-old from Linton, was killed in August during an attack on the British Council diplomatic offices in Kabul and Leon Smith died in September after being shot in the head during a raid on a compound in Wardak province.
Goff said New Zealand had now been in Afghanistan for longer than it had been in the World Wars combined.
"We have been now a decade in Afghanistan, we cannot win a war in Afghanistan where the administration we are supporting is deeply corrupt and not winning the hearts and minds of its own people."
Labour would also retain Linton Army Camp, instead of going through with the proposed merge with Ohakea Airforce base, and would look at establishing a defence college in Palmerston North.
Lees-Galloway, also MP for Palmerston North, said Labour would put a halt on the civilianisation of the defence force until it was reviewed, explore the defence force's role in carrying out research and development and make sure all defence force bases were safe and secure.
- Stuff
