NZDF General discussion thread

[Rob c]

TBH I remain skeptical that her past and present statements were/are misguided or ignorant. Instead, I have had the impression for years that she has actively disliked armed forces and sought political power in NZ to essentially neutralize what is now the NZDF, with past and present statements made more to convince others to go along with her goals. In essence, she did not want NZ to be able to protect itself, apart from perhaps getting involved in international policing/peacekeeping ops under the UN, and made arguments to justify changes she wanted to refashion the NZDF into something more to her liking.

I think you are right in your idea that she dislikes/ hates the armed forces and for instance, back in the 1980's has been quoted as saying that if you was in a position to disband the ACF she would. However a lot of what she said over the years has shown a complete ignorance of the armed forces and she was a big user of fake news in this regard and simply disregarded any attempt to show her facts. When dealing with defence she used a lot of the methods that D.T. is using now, distortions, cajoling , and simply ignoring what she did not want to hear. When it came to the cabinet, she made it clear that it was her way or the highway.