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Thread ID: 132710	2013-05-21 04:59:00	Sir Bob Jones: NZ should abolish its armed forces	Trev (427)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1342442	2013-05-21 04:59:00	Here. (www.nzherald.co.nz) Interesting idea. :)	Trev (427)
1342443	2013-05-21 05:26:00	Saves any enemy (more powerful than the Chathams) 5 minutes of wipe-out practice I guess.	R2x1 (4628)
1342444	2013-05-21 05:32:00	My first reaction inside my head was "Why on earth would you do that, it's a horrible idea". Then I stopped and had a think about it... And yeah basically if we were to turn up to almost any fight, the US, or even Australia would be like "Please guys, c'mon, we're worried we'll trip over you as we run into battle". Now that's not to diminish our army / air force / navy, in fact my cousin was one of the 3 who died a couple of years back in the ANZAC helicopter crash. I've seen some of those guys first hand and they are bloody good blokes who do our country proud. That said, I'd wager it'd be more cost effective if they were part of the police force or similar instead of maintaining expensive warships etc...	Chilling_Silence (9)
1342445	2013-05-21 08:57:00	Firstly, nods to Chill on the loss of his cousin. Commiserations. Sir Bob developed a somewhat similar argument years ago. It went on the lines of if the yellow hordes did in fact invade us and take over this country, then all that would happen is they would end up end up paying us market prices for our sheep, lamb, wool, kiwifruit etc. Instead of our subsidising them. And on the subject of immigration. Relax the immigration rules world wide and ... all that would happen would be there a surge of people moving in all kinds of directions in search of the promised land, the greener grass. Then when those did not prove attainable, most of theose people would return to their origins. Food for thought. I'm not sure he's right but, there's logic there.	WalOne (4202)
1342446	2013-05-21 09:09:00	Who cares what Bob Jones thinks.	Bobh (5192)
1342447	2013-05-21 10:02:00	It extends more than their useful role as a defence. Other than the jobs that it provides our military budget allows a lot of other things to happen that simply wouldn't otherwise, things such as aid during natural disaster. Yes I know that we might save, say 2.5 million a year without an army but how much would it cost to instantly deploy relief to Christchurch again in the event of another quake? We would have no heavy life aircraft avaliable, no ground troops trained in basic first aid and rescue and a limited amount of machinery at our disposal. But lets say we do get a thousand men and women with those skills + a few trucks together, fly them and some civilian engineers on Air NZ flights and truck them from the nearest open airport to CHCH. Then what? We have to organise how to feed them, and organise cooking staff and equipment (whilst we're here, how's the food getting in?) we'll also need them to sleep somewhere, and they'll need washing, lighting etc. Then the 1st day of recovery rolls around so we go get all the comms and rescue gear from jaycar and no one knows how to work as a team together. There are no standard procedures and everything turns to utter ****. The cost would probably exceed the savings too. Well you say, we can get rid of the Military but still save by rolling them into a civil defence response unit, and station a bunch of them at major centres around the country. To keep them occupied and in training we'll send them on foreign aid missions so they can get experience and earn good old respect and favours for NZ when we're in strife, and they can have regular training and then we might as well train them in basic defence too and then holy snapping duck sh*t!! We have the Army, Air Force and Navy back. They do good, a lot of good. It's not only that but the public feel safe knowing we have armed forces in standby. Also, although we might not have any threats now, take away the defences what's to stop someone saying "oh, well look at that. A free country just sitting there" I can see his point, it may look as though they are doing nothing but our Armed forces are an integral part of the countries operations.	The Error Guy (14052)
1342448	2013-05-21 11:17:00	UN mandates all countries hand over their military forces.	Mirddes (10)
1342449	2013-05-21 22:01:00	Who cares what Bob Jones thinks. Exactly. If Bob Jones suggests it then there's something in it for him. Just like he setup the NZ party back in the 1980s..	paulw (1826)
1342450	2013-05-21 23:37:00	The NZ Party was set up by Bob Jones in 1983 because he opposed Rob Muldoon's policy for state intervention in the economy. The NZ Party gained no seats but he split the votes causing the National Party's defeat in the 1984 election. One example was the party's unorthodox defence policy, which advocated a large reduction in military expenditure and the abandonment of New Zealand's defence links with Australia and the United States (particularly the ANZUS alliance). Jones himself favoured the total abolition of New Zealand's armed forces, although this was considered too radical to be adopted as New Zealand Party policy. Read here. (en.wikipedia.org)	Bobh (5192)
1342451	2013-05-22 00:29:00	The NZ Party was set up by Bob Jones in 1983 because he opposed Rob Muldoon's policy for state intervention in the economy. The NZ Party gained no seats but he split the votes causing the National Party's defeat in the 1984 election. Exactly. Another way to skin the cat. I was at a (non-political) luncheon meeting in Wellington when Bob announced the formation of the NZ Party, and that was his stated intention.	WalOne (4202)
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