The link below explains the situation and at this stage I’m not going to start ranting on about what I think – but I am geninuely worried when I see things like this.
In summary – Tongan soldiers will be supporting the British in Afghanistan. 55 will begin service in November and 220 more will follow. They will be getting paid 30 pounds a day for putting their lives at risk…
http://www.matangitonga.to/article/tonganews/defence/20100728_tonga_soldiers_afghanistan.shtml
And New Zealand is effected….how?
@ Simon, it shows that NZ and Australia aren’t the only troops from the pacific that contribute to the war on terror.
Furthermore, people from the Tongan community here in New Zealand would be concerned as there could be friends and relatives involved.
Good on Helen Clarke for keeping us out of that war. We did not raise and educate our children to go off and die over international disputes which do not concern us.
And how much is the Tongan head of state clipping the ticket I wonder ?
And OMG and they are rotating their troops through there every 6 months – they will have no time to build up in-theatre operational experience, local language skills etc, and pass it on to the next bunch before they bail. I am also supposing that the Tongan military does not have a lot of experience operating in mountainous terrain.
And that £30 per day figure is ridiculously low. Does this mean the British are paying for the deployment? It might be passable sum if it was “danger money” on top of their normal salary.
@ Spud, I guess you can say that from the comfort of NZ
@ Dylan, ummm we are involved in it, get with the program!
Generally, all that most of you are is a bunch of hypocrites, you sit there and moan about human rights when it’s politically convienient, however nations show some leadership, put their money where their mouth is and go into a country and defend human rights for those unable to defend them: the repression of woman, the attacks on innocent people, the attempmted enforcement of islamic law by a bunch of barbarians etc… etc… the list goes on and on, suddenly its oh no its “bad”, derived purely by outdated values and ideas from the bunch of past it wannabe hippies who infect the party.
Oh, I guess keeping a totally corrupt President Karzai and his Govt in power is about “human rights” and given the wikileaks evidence just released, would you call the daily killing of civilians by NATO forces also about “human rights?” In other words, how the daily operating activities and operating style of western forces in Afghanistan have strengthened, not weakened the Taliban in Afghanistan despite the US having spent almost $300B on this war to date.
Its a good thing that human rights are upheld in Afghanistan but you should figure out if that is really happening when more civilians are killed in a province by western air strikes and Predator attacks than by Taliban.
And then maybe you should have a think about who the hypocrite is.
@Dylan – and Phil Goff
@Ben – I feel sorry for all sides in this war
You know who else said get with the programme? That murderer dude’s father in The Langoleers
Woah, dude, I personally feel creeped out by hippies okay?
Calm down buddy 
@Ben yeah we are involved there with our special forces but that was it I thought
Ben the second part to your comment provokes alot of thought that I will not say here but I will say this – I rarely talking about human rights but I do know that if the U.S.A was going into Iraq because of human rights the civilian death toll would not be currently reaching 100,000.
@ Loota,
I never said I supported the current government nor the military strategy necessariy, BUT I do support the eradication of the Taliban, what would have happened if we said yes Hitlers invading places, but you know if we go in there we could end up hurting people so lets just leave em to it.
“they will have no time to build up in-theatre operational experience, local language skills etc”
by the looks of the article they are not there to win hearts and minds. Should be good operational experience for them though, get into it, put some training into action.
There are already quite a few Tongans in the British Army, a good bunch of guys that have fitted in well from what i’ve read. Funnily enough a couple of years back at the Middlesex 7s at Twickenham the Army won, their team was virtually Tonga vs everybody else.
Carmel
You have obviously researched this matter.
Can you confirm that the 30 pounds a day is the soldiers total pay and not just an extra stipend that the British military are paying over and above the soldiers normal pay rate.
Only going by what I’ve read Mark M. What it comes down to is that I don’t want to see lives of our Pacific people (from across the Pacific region) lost unnecessarily.
The British Army got its butt kicked comprehensively in the 19th Century in Afganistan…
Despite all the technology and resources of our age we still cannot defeat the Taliban, they are remember fighting for their Country…And of course having the Pakistanis assisting them helps nicely too…
Carmel, is this any business of yours or NZ ? I thought Tonga was an independent nation, making up its own mind about things.
The soldiers are Tongans, not NZers. You are in parliament to represent the interests of NZers, not Tongans.
I expect they’d be offended by your comments – they’re Tongans and do what they will, its none of NZs business.
I see in the article that “Tonga soldiers served in Iraq from 2004 to 2006, and again from 2007 to December 2008.
“.
Did you make a song and dance about that ? If not why not ?
As for how much they may be paid, who cares, that’s the going rate for Tongan soldiers – want to bet its better than that for Afghan soldiers ?
Tongans have an interest in international affairs as well. It’s a bit condescending to assume that some politician in NZ thinks the Tongan Government should care what they think.
I thought we were in Afghanistan.
Aren’t we in the same messy situation, swallowing the same propaganda.
I would have though any comment is relevant.
Do you mean other countries can’t tell us what to do.
That would be great.
We could run NZ to suit NZ. That hasn’t been the case since before WWII.
Pray my husband comes home alive and in 1 piece… he is part of the 55 that have gone to help Britain in Afghan… All these soldiers are leavinng behind wives and there kids and for what? Its not worth the pain and heart ache bring our soldiers home
I hope so too.
congratulations on argueing on issues u don’t know enough to be arguing about big ups to tonga’s contribution to the worlds war against terror…