h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"More bizarrely, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark condemned the invasion of Iraq, and then proceeded to send a small number of troops to support it, without attracting any significant domestic or international criticism."

New Zealand sent troops to assist in the rebuilding of infrastructure etc and getting the country 'back on track' in general. It did not send troops to "support" the invasion: just to assist in the restoration of peace to Iraq in accordance with New Zealand's peaceful foreign policy.

Indeed...

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_politics_story_skin/448487?format=html


The number of troops (61) was small even for a country of only 4 million

This, combined with the fact that they were all engineers would have made "domestic or international criticism" somewhat surprising, esp when considering how lightly they were 'armed': http://www.nzflag.com/gallery.cfm

Sorry, just caught up with these posts, having not logged on for 6 months or so. Really deeply don't think it is too important, but the circumstaqnces surrounding their deployment were as stated:

1. Helen Clark criticises US invasion.

2. US puts hard word on Helen about her comments.

3. We send troops to join the allied coalition which invaded Iraq under the control of the allied coalition which invaded Iraq. (yes, most were Engineers who are troops. Actually I'm at Linton army base at the moment, and happy to put it to engineers that they aren't really soldiers if you want me to).

But if it helps salve any consciences, she did pull out ASAP