“The East Timor Crisis is a poignant reminder of just how run down New Zealand Defence forces are,” said Lt Col (Retd) John Bryant, Christian Heritage Party Spokesperson on Defence.

“A few days ago we saw the strange spectacle of the Minister of Defence saying that we could not immediately send any troops to East Timor because our Defence Forces were committed to supporting APEC. The thrust of the matter, however, is even more shocking. New Zealand’s Defence Forces are so run down both in terms of manpower and equipment, that even if the Government were not conducting a bun-fight and media crisis such as APEC, our troops are in no fit state to be deployed anywhere without being a logistical and security burden on someone else.”

“It is also intriguing to listen to the squawks from the political left now suddenly coming out of the closet to urge the Government to instantly send in our troops to East Timor. Are these the same people who propose savagely cutting and emasculating our armed forces?”

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>