In 2016, Labour promised that they would withdraw kiwi troops from Iraq if elected. They lied:
New Zealand will extend its military presence in Iraq until June 2019, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced.
Cabinet signed off on five military deployments on Monday.
The deployment in Afghanistan has also been extended to September 2019 alongside three smaller peacekeeping missions.
Our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are neither moral nor necessary. In Iraq, kiwi troops have been directly assisting the Iraqi army in a murderous war. The Iraqi government has declared its enemies defeated. So why are we still there? And in Afghanistan, Kiwi troops have been directly implicated in war crimes, which are now the subject of an inquiry here in New Zealand. In both cases, all our presence does is directly support the corrupt, murderous regimes in Baghdad, Kabul, and Washington. Instead of doing that, we should bring them home - now.
