''John Key should fight in Iraq.'' - Adam Holland

By the Independent Candidate for the Northland By-Election: Adam Holland

It was only a couple of weeks ago when Prime Minister John Key delivered his famous ''Get some guts!'' speech in The House of Representatives when addressing the opposition parties on his decision to send our troops to Iraq without a parliamentary vote or referendum. Since Mr Key has refused Parliament to vote on this issue, what does it mean? I'll tell you what it means - We are living in a dictatorship where John Key is essentially the king who has Carte Blanche to do as he pleases.

In a western democracy, we elect representatives in order to do just that; represent us. John Key has unfortunately ignored this simple rule by ignoring a mandate by the New Zealand public and Parliament in order to send 143 of our brave men and women to put their lives on the line, perpetuating a war that was started in 2003 by President George W Bush under the most absurd pretext that Saddam Hussein was in possession of ''Weapons of mass destruction.''
There were no weapons of mass destruction yet the USA has been waging war with Iraq for almost twelve years. What is the cost of fighting these wars?

- Twelve New Zealand service members were killed in Afghanistan.
- A total of 4,491 U.S. service members have been killed between 2003 and 2014.
- 2 million Iraqis fled the country causing a refugee crisis.
- An estimated 1,200,000 - 2,200,000 Iraqis have lost their lives between 2003 and 2014.

New Zealand soldiers will die in Iraq, no matter how many more Iraqis are killed or misplaced and how many billions of dollars New Zealand will lose as another consequence. Since John Key assumed office in 2008, New Zealand national debt rocketed from 15 billion NZD to 86.89 billion NZD - Roughly 37% of our total GDP as a percentage and $102 interest per second. In other words, John Key and National are bankrupting our country.

So I hereby challenge John Key to ''Get some guts'', put his uniform on, strap up, load his military issued assault rifle, allow Bill English to serve as acting PM whilst John Key serves his time in Iraq so he can go with our brave men and women to fight this ridiculous war that he's now dragging New Zealand into.

A Vote for National candidate Mark Osborne in Northland is a vote in support of all the above.

I do not support this aggression, it will not stand.

ends

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