[PzLdr]

The problem is that the author [and perhaps the New Zealand gov't] seems to believe that in the post 9/11 world, their desire for economic relations that will be closer to the U.S, and more beneficial to them, can be divorced for their idiotic and anti-U.S defense policies ['nuclear free zone' ring a bell?], their sanctimonious and priggish pronouncements on U.S foreign policy, and their very public refusal to aid us in the war on terror. Proves the beauty of the English language: Why 'fat chance' and 'slim chance' mean the same thing

[Aneirin]

Obviously, you're excluding our troops in Afghanistan from New Zealand's "very public refusal" to send aid in the War on Terror. We've sent both a provincial reconstruction team and special forces engaging in combat. I could also point out our engineers who were in Basra with the Brits, NZ frigates and Orions in the Persian Gulf, and various interventions in "failed states" around the Pacific to stop them becoming havens for transnational crime and terrorism. But then you must know all that because you wouldn't post without first checking your facts, would you?