Concerning New Zealand and the US-NZ Partnership Forum

Concerning New Zealand and the US-NZ Partnership Forum

In his opening address to the US-NZ Partnership Forum Prime Minister John Key
said: “this Government decided earlier this month to extend the deployment
of the New Zealand Special Air Service to Afghanistan.”
and he went on to say:

“Since the SAS has been in Kabul we have seen a marked increase in
the ability of the Afghan security forces to deal with insurgents and
other threats – and a corresponding improvement in the security
situation.”

Mr Key's rosy picture of progress is belied by the reality on the ground – the
violence in Afghanistan is actually at an all-time high and recent figures show
civilian casualties have increased by 31 per cent since last year. The number of
children killed in the war is up 55 per cent. Apart from our own casualties, seven British soldiers died in the past week, bringing the total to 357, almost double the number of those killed in Iraq.

This is already the longest war in US history. The Petraeus's troop 'surge' can
hardly be described as a success. Attempts to strengthen the occupying coalition's Afghan anti-Taliban forces are in ruins after fighting broke out among rival groups in Helmand this week. Spring is fast approaching and fighting will resume in earnest as, throughout history, every foreign invader of Afghanistan has discovered. US Admiral Mike Mullen has issued a warning that 2011 will be even more violent than 2010, which was the worst year of the war so far. In his book 'Obama's Wars' associate editor of the Washington Post, Robert Woodward, quotes General Petraeus telling the president, “You have to recognise also that I don’t think you win this war. I think you keep fighting… You have to stay after it. This is the kind of fight we’re in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids’ lives.” While New Zealanders suffer the rise in GST, the soaring cost of food and massive cutbacks, millions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on this pointless war. John Key also said in his opening address to the US-NZ Partnership Forum: “There are many exciting opportunities we are pursuing as a result of the Wellington Declaration and the positive state of the US-New Zealand relationship. I am committed to progressing this relationship.”

One might ask shouldn't “progressing this relationship” include some friendly
advice and refusal to collaborate in manifestly irrational foreign adventures? Since the start of this year, 15,441 US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan compared with 317 in 2009, which had previously been the deadliest year (for the US) of the war. In a nationally televised address on 31 August 2010, President Obama announced “we have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas.” The President also said, “this, in turn, has shortchanged investments in our own people, and contributed to record deficits… Too many families find themselves working harder for less, while our nation’s long-term competitiveness is put at risk.”

Israel/Palestine
The US-NZ Partnership Forum also heard Prime Minister John Key say in his
opening address:

“One global issue that has been high on the agenda for the last
decade is addressing the threat of terrorism. International terrorism
remains a real threat to New Zealand and US interests. Addressing
global security challenges, such as terrorism, is a key part of New
Zealand’s foreign policy.”

On Friday 18 February the US used its veto at the UN Security Council to defeat a draft resolution condemning illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. One of the biggest propaganda weapons for terrorists is the demonstrable collaboration of the United States with Israel in its gross violations of international law and human rights. The Palestinian people understandably resisted US President Barack Obama's threats, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's offer, of incentives and forced the UN vote to affirm the illegality of Israel's Occupation settlements. Fourteen of the 15 Security Council members voted in favour of the Resolution, leaving the US isolated and impelled to use its lone veto to help Israel avoid its obligations under international law.

The United States has thus been seen using its veto against its own professed
position of principle regarding the settlements, demonstrating yet another illogical inconsistency that true friends would have advised against – rather than remain silent. US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice's opinion that the UN was not the best place to seek to resolve the issue flies in the face of history and natural justice. The UN Security Council exists precisely for the resolution of issues such as this.

According to Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights
Council, the centrality that has been accorded by both sides to the settlement
phenomenon shows that:
"more detailed attention to the facts and legal implications of recent
settlement expansion seems appropriate. The Israeli 10-month selfdelimited
“moratorium” on settlement expansion in the West Bank
expired on 26 September 2010, leading to the breakdown of the briefly
resumed peace process and giving rise to lengthy negotiations aimed
at re-establishing the moratorium that have now been abandoned.

". . . the 10-month moratorium did not stop settlement construction but
only slowed the pace of expansion in some parts of the West Bank; it
did not purport to freeze settlement construction in occupied East
Jerusalem, contending, contrary to the international legal and political
consensus, that the whole of Jerusalem, as expanded by Israeli law
since 1967, is unoccupied, and that the whole city is the capital of
Israel, leaving no part of the city to be available as the capital of a
future Palestinian state."

Israel's Occupation settlements are maintained and expanded at the cost of
Palestinian life and limb. The daily (and nightly) ruthless suppression of Palestinian human rights includes home invasions, severely limiting the Palestinian water supply in favour of illegal settlements, abuse of Palestinian children, agricultural and economic sabotage, segregation of roads, house demolitions, the destruction of Bedouin villages, attacks on Palestinian fishing boats and blockade of the Gaza Strip. See Richard Falk: Report of Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Council on Occupied Palestinian Territories for further detail. The US veto isolates the US from the vast majority of global civil society and undermines the rule of international law, the only effective mechanism for safeguarding peace and stability with justice.

New Zealand's uncritical support for US foreign policy is not in our best interests. It would be nothing but an illusion to think that our long-term security could in any way be served by our collaboration in wars launched by the United states. New Zealand's best interests would be better served by advising, not appeasing, our friends and partnering the majority of humanity in building respect for justice, human rights and the sadly neglected Fourth Geneva Convention.

ENDS

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