Yesterday, the National Party released its foreign affairs discussion paper [PDF] - a discussion paper more notable for what it leaves out than for what it says. Despite trying to spin it as adopting "Labour-style" foreign policy based on independence and multilateralism, there is no mention of human rights, no mention of Iraq, and no mention of where the National Party stood on the question of committing New Zealand troops to future US military adventures - for example in Iran. And when asked about the latter on Morning Report this morning, John Key dodged the question [audio],
I'm just not going to engage in a hypothetical debate. What I'm going to tell you is this is the process, and the process is at any time if there was ever the requirement for New Zealand to potentially commit troops that's something we would take very very seriously indeed, and quite honestly something that we would be reluctant to do unless there was very good reason.This simply isn't good enough. Participating only in just causes and keeping out of America's unjust wars is something that matters deeply to New Zealanders - that's why we're not in Iraq (a war Key apparently thinks is "over" - something he should probably tell the Americans). We deserve a solid answer, rather than just a vague "we'd think hard about it". Key's refusal to give us one invites the natural conclusion: that the reason he's keeping silent because he knows we wouldn't like his real position.
