tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post7776060835292567522..comments2024-03-29T17:12:19.648+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Code RedChris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-92053740193545066282011-05-02T19:28:47.724+12:002011-05-02T19:28:47.724+12:00There are two seperate issues here the way the mil...There are two seperate issues here the way the military and special forces are fighting in Afghanistan and how much control NZ governments and bureaucrats can have when they deploy sophisticated armed forces overseas. New Zealand has never had the control over its Navy, Air Force or SAS that the Canadian or Australian Government have over theirs. The British and Americans have never regarded us as totally sovereign and in reality we were seen as little more than a colony until Britain pulled its forces out of South East Asia in l971 and joined the EEC in l974. In many ways the US and UK formed the correct impression because we were too small, lacked the political talent( excepting to a degree Clark and Muldoon) and had a foreign affairs and defence establishment and bureaucray that was too small and limited to be allowed to make crucial decisions about what we did with the Canberra, Orions and SAS and also the Leander frigates and Royalist before l975.<br />When Muldoon and leading National Party politicians did try and infuluence deployments and interfere continuoulsy in procurement decisons, for example in the total split of the Cabinet over whetheer 3 or 5 Orion should be obtained in l965 and whether an American or British frigate should be brought as a fourth frigate in the late l960s and whether the sonars should be modern or American like the Edo in the Canandian one in the 205s and Dutch leanders, trouble developed in the Western alliance and in defence headquarters.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com