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War on terror costs NZ $185m in five years

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Afghan war carries $185m cost for NZ

3News NZ

A further $32m has been budgeted this year, as the Defence Force prepares to withdraw its provincial reconstruction team (Reuters)

A further $32m has been budgeted this year, as the Defence Force prepares to withdraw its provincial reconstruction team (Reuters)

During the past five years the war on terror in Afghanistan has cost New Zealand $185 million.

A further $32m has been budgeted this year, as the Defence Force prepares to withdraw its provincial reconstruction team, the Sunday Star-Times reports.

In the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 financial years $44.1m and $50.03m was spent while the country's SAS unit was in Afghanistan.

New Zealand will withdraw from Afghanistan next year, although a date is yet to be set.

Prime Minister John Key has said it was unlikely troops would be withdrawn early following the deaths of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone a week ago.

"This brings the total number of New Zealand soldiers who have lost their lives in Afghanistan to seven," Mr Key said last week.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully said last month that during the coming weeks a specialist team would visit Bamyan to draw up a detailed exit plan.

The papers also reveal the Defence Force spent $85.6m over four years in Timor Leste and a further $5.4m has been budgeted in this financial year. A deployment to the Solomon Islands cost $31.2m from 2007-12, with $4.1m to be spent this financial year.

NZN

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Comments

23/09/2012 10:12:10 a.m.

Morgan wrote:

@Gavin, yes, our troops do need our support. They have been placed in an untenable position by the government where they combat not "terrorists", but a military force in desperate attempts to defend their homeland, similar I believe that would occur in this country if we were to forcibly occupied by foreign troops murdering civilians either by mistake or intent. Do not be misslead by the propaganda, we are there to impose condinalities required by foreign owned, extremely wealthy corporations to expedite the extraction of their investments. If you do not understand this, examine the no fly zone in Libiya and the industry it protects or the recently completed and ongoing pipline projects and world leading opium production in Afganistan and look very closely at Venezuela and their stance against foreign owned oil industry legislation, because I fear this will be our next deployment. Being an veteran of these types of campaigns I wear my infantry combat badge with pride not for some sucsessful twisted political agenda but for bringing my mates home safe. You fight the wars you can win but this one, I'm afraid, is unwinable any further delay in withdrawl for some, beehive armchair, notion of revenge is criminal.

17/08/2012 12:41:32 a.m.

Gavin wrote:

Garry, it is irrelevant why our troops are deployed. Just accept the fact that they are and let them have our full support as they put their lives on the line. Be thankful that there are people willing to do violence on your behalf so you can have the freedom to safely voice your concerns.

16/08/2012 11:45:56 a.m.

Gary wrote:

@Gavin nice pitch for a pay rise but you miss the point. Why are NZ troops even in Afghanistan? It is not our war? Why is the NZ tax payer funding the clean up of US aggression?? Hey why not use this money to pay our troops more to stay at home? And at least the Oz mine camp cleaner is not promoting violence or oppression and helping to improve Oz economy so he should be paid more.

16/08/2012 12:11:31 a.m.

Gavin wrote:

I fail to see the point of this article. Yes deploying our troops is expensive but it is a price we as a nation must pay in order to support our troops and allow them to do what we have asked of them. Penny pinching is rapidly destroying the morale of the NZDF at home and if we start putting the squeeze on those deployed then the consequences could potentially be dire. Give our troops what they need and they will repay us with their loyalty. Our troops are rediculously underpaid on operations overseas and it is little wonder they are all leaving when a cleaner in an Australian mining camp gets paid nearly double what most soliers earn for putting their life on the line. We owe them more.

13/08/2012 11:53:17 a.m.

Gary wrote:

@ Christopher I do wish you looked at this factually from the point of what is best for NZers rather than your "he said" , "she said" baby comments about who did what since 1939! Get real man and start thinking about the people of NZ. End of the day this is a total waste of time, waste of money, and waste of lives!

13/08/2012 10:15:28 a.m.

Roger wrote:

When it gets out of hand like 50 million WW2 casualties just cos nutters like Churchill (and Savage) go around declaring wars and rejecting reasonable peace offers , its time to get rid of entangling alliances that serve others.
All based on Weapons of mass destruction lies. Enough!

12/08/2012 9:31:39 p.m.

Christopher wrote:

DAVI - again you show your ignornace. In foreign affairs Labour was quite willing to involve New Zealand in imperialist wars. When Britain declared war in 1939, Savage said, “Where She goes, we go; where She stands, we stand”. New Zealand was very much the junior partner of British imperialism. Labour moved quickly against the working class and opponents of the war. Most recently, Labour was quick to support the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and sent SAS troops, and in 2003 sent army personnel as part of the occupation of Iraq. Although the New Zealand military presence in Iraq was supposedly merely “engineers” helping “rebuild” the country “our allies” had devastated, investigative journalist Nicky Hager uncovered papers showing the “engineers” were spending a lot of their time guarding the British military compound, repairing British combat vessels and working inside the British headquarters in Basra. A confidential New Zealand Defence memo reported that New Zealand “engineers” were filling British staff officer positions which were heavily stretched at the time. The “engineers” were also authorised to use deadly force to “defend” themselves, other occupation personnel and buildings of importance to the occupation. Far from being greeted as liberators, the New Zealand “engineers” were regularly pelted with rocks and security became the priority for them. The involvement of the Labour government in the occupation of Iraq was a message to the US that “we” are still on their side and helped New Zealand firms gain access to lucrative occupation contracts. The Labour government has also supplied naval vessels to work alongside the US navy in blockading the waters of the Middle East. Not surprisingly, Nicky Hager wrote in the NZ Herald that “Helen Clark is moving much closer to the US military than the last National government ever did.”

12/08/2012 8:39:37 p.m.

james wrote:

The problem is our "troops" are over thier killing innocent people and destroying childrens lives right in front of them. Absolutely disgusting and nothing will change or make right the devistation we have helped create. And for what? where are those weapons of mass destruction? WHERE?

12/08/2012 6:30:52 p.m.

james wrote:

thats all good, the govmt cash in on average 45 million a year on speed camera tickets alone. so whats the issue?

12/08/2012 3:23:40 p.m.

Brent wrote:

$210 million under The Helen Clark Government @$30 million a year But there was a Troop boost In 2008 By Clark, That would account for the extra 10Million.