Locke welcomes National support for SAS withdrawal

Green Foreign Affairs spokesperson Keith Locke has backed Bill English's call for our SAS troops to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

"When even a National Party leader calls for the SAS to come home, there can't be any good reason for them remaining," he said.

"The Taliban was defeated a long time ago. Staying in Afghanistan only associates us with the continuing deaths of innocent civilians and the in-fighting between competing warlords.

"The government wouldn't have put such a shroud of secrecy over this war if it was all in a good cause.

"I disagree with Mr English's reason that we haven't got enough troops to combat terrorism at home. I understand an SAS unit with a counter-terrorism capability is still in New Zealand.

"I don't think the lesson of Bali is that we are in grave danger. All the suspects in the Bali bombing are local Indonesians. It is still unlikely that we are going to be subject to a major international terrorist attack," said Mr Locke.

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