Gimme Shelter
Major General Howard discusses NZ’s security on Q&A.
War, children
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away, yeah
Song: Jagger/Richards.
Today on Q&A, Jack Tame spoke to retired Major General Howard on New Zealand’s security.
The retired general spoke of the end of multilateralism and of a rules-based world we want, but can we be honest? We’re not talking about the whole world or even numerous parts of it; we’re talking about Donald Trump, who has thrown away all the concepts of decency and respect, and is now letting Benjamin Netanyahu, a war criminal responsible for murdering tens of thousands of Palestinians, set the agenda.
Just a thought, but perhaps if the likes of Winston Peters and Judith Collins could stop bad mouthing our other allies, like China, which is far more peaceful and predictable than a hyper aggressive US led by a mad man that might be a good start rather than running around like our hair is on fire screaming that it’s the end of the old world order.
A couple of heart attacks in Washington and Tel Aviv, maybe another in Moscow for good measure and the world would be a remarkably different place.
When asked if we should be alarmed at events in Iran, the general said we should have been alarmed long ago, dating back to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and he has a fair point. Who would have thought we’d see such a long-running war in Europe? As for events in the Middle East, it’s hard to claim they are much of a surprise, as it’s pretty much a continuation of American foreign policy in the region that has persisted for decades.
On New Zealand’s response, Howard said that he had heard a lot of people use the word ‘shock’, but it wasn’t so much a ‘shock’ as a ‘reality check’, and that Kiwis had been too busy enjoying summer to notice the buildup in the region, which indicated something was about to happen. I thought of Christopher Luxon taking his long “working from home” break while working on his TikToks.
