Prime Minister Helen Clark has put Iraq on the agenda this election campaign, telling a Grey Power meeting that had a National government sent NZ troops to Iraq, 60 of them would have come home in body bags.
Clark says she came to the figure by working it out as a proportion of the number of Americans killed in the warzone.
National calls the claim hysterical.
As the oldies arrived at the Lower Hutt Grey Power meeting today, it was clear their votes are up for grabs and Winston Peters is no longer their messiah.
Several told 3 News Peters is in some political trouble.
"He's a bloody idiot, but he's cunning," said one.
So in came Clark, making a kind of raid on Peters' traditional parade, with a chance to pitch for his people, and she choose to talk about Iraq.
She made a claim that if National had sent in troops, 60 would have returned in coffins, to applause.
"And for what? Is the world a single bit safer?"
Clark claims that is the number if you compare it on a pro-rata basis with America, which has lost 4152 men and women.
But Australia had 14,000 military personnel in Iraq, over five years - and only one died, accidentally.
Clark is sticking by her claims, although she seems to accept her maths might be questionable, saying the calculation was "back of the envelope".
Clark used her decision to stay out of Iraq successfully during the 2005 election campaign. Now it is clear she will use it again this campaign.
Through a spokesman, National leader John Key said the claim of 60 dead is hysterical and desperate, and that Clark should stick to the core issues.
3 News