27 February 2007

Peters embarrasses self, country with Iraq comments

Green Party Foreign Affairs Keith Locke has challenged Foreign Minister Winston Peters' view that 'total chaos' would result if American troops were withdrawn from Iraq.

'Everyone else has realized that the rate of killing has keep on rising the longer that the occupation has dragged on. Mr Peters hasn't yet got it - that the American troops are at the heart of the problem, and not part of the solution, " Mr Locke says.

"Opinion polls show most Iraqis don't like the way the American troops are behaving, and want to get them out. It is colonial mentality to think that the Iraqis can't sort out their own affairs.

"It is also highly presumptive for the Foreign Minister of our Government, that has rightly kept out of the war, to be advising America that it must stay the course in Iraq, and keep on sacrificing the lives of its young men in a forlorn cause," Mr Locke says.

ENDS

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