Winston Peters endorses murder of 500,000 children

Winston Peters is back to his usual tricks, making a lot of noise about things he knows are of little consequence but play well to his base.

Peters has ordered Foreign Affairs officials to investigate why two New Zealand companies were involved in questionable dealings under the United Nations oil for food programme in Iraq.

Ecroyd Beekeeping Supplies of Christchurch and pump maker J B Sales International were among 2400 companies, half of them from the United States, named in the "independent" inquiry by former US treasury secretary Paul Volcker. Both transactions were under $1 million and neither involved allocations of oil, where the bulk of the kick backs to Iraqi officials occurred. Ecroyd is listed as supplying $US273,000 of honey extractors and pesticide, and JB Sales as providing pumps worth $US393,000. Both transactions were cleared by the NZ government at the time.

National Party foreign affairs spokesman Murray McCully supported the inquiry, saying New Zealand's reputation "would be hanging out there to dry" until the matter was resolved.

Rather than litigate problems two small NZ firms had getting their goods through a difficult border, we should be asking why New Zealand supported the sanctions against Iraq which killed at least half a million Iraqi children - a prolonged of medieval proportions and one of the most barbaric acts of the late 20th century. Challenge on those deaths, former US secretary of state Madeline Albright said "we think the price is worth it," a statement which lays raw the evil and hypocrisy at the heart of the west's policy.

Fact. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Fact. Saddam destroyed the remaining chemicals he had been sold by the US and its surrogates soon after the end of the first gulf war, a fact western governments were well aware of after Saddam's son in law defected, with large amounts of documents, in 1994. The sanctions, which were not imposed by the UN as a whole but by the US-dominated Security Council, stayed on though because their sponsors were not prepared for any outcome but regime change.

The reason many New Zealanders are unhappy with Peters being foreign affairs minister is because they want the independent foreign policy positions Labour governments sometimes deliver. Peters seems to want to suck up to the unelected rogues running the US (or at least those who have so far not been indicted).

On the topic of sucking up to Americans, Peters cried crocodile tears for singer Barry McGuire, denied permanent residence because at 70 and with a pacemaker, he could be a burden on the health system. This is someone with a NZ wife of long standing who has lived here for extended spells, taken part in its musical life and paid taxed on international earnings here.

But before we are too critical of a manifestly stupid decision by Immigrations officials, let us not forget why they are playing hard ball.

Step forward … Winston Peters, whose multi-year campaign against immigration has led to a major tightening of our borders, with significant economic and cultural impact, not to mention damaging our international reputation.