Yes you are ziggy and I certainly appreciate your support. Unfortunately many folks here are not aware of the circumstances surrounding the election of your communist Clark and that is unfortunate. If it is any consolation to you, there are many folks here that do understand and certainly don't harbor any ill feelings against New Zealand. Thanks for your support!
This morning I donated $500 towards a fund that our firefighters have set up to assist their colleagues in NYC. This is a not unsubstantial amount to me as I am not rich, but it is an indication of my feelings and those of most of my countrymen, to the tragic events of the past week. So understandably, I am pretty p***** off at the amount of Kiwi bashing that I have seen on this site over the past couple of days citing us as a bunch of deserters.
The truth of the matter is, our Government has pledged our support, President Bush has expressed appreciation for that.
If needed,this would probably be in the form of Special Forces (NZ Special Air Service),the same group that was responsible for destroying the Scud missiles so that coalition forces could mount their air raids in the Gulf War without the threat of being blown away. Our conventional forces are busy with the East Timor situation; this wouldn't be a suitable operation for them anyway.
As for our leadership, we know we have a Government that is leading us down an isolationist path. I mean, an Air Force with no combat capability; this would be laughable if it were not so serious! Helen Clark had her aircraft barricaded by Australian protestors last week at Melbourne Airport. They prevented her from leaving for five hours. We're pretty mad at those Aussies; cos' they eventually let her go!
One thing that we have in common with the US, is that we don't go storming Parliament when we don't like what the Government is doing. This is part of living in a Democracy; our time comes around at the next elections. Hopefully we will still have people here to vote by then!