Ron Mark: Boy, are we valued
Defence Minister shifts stance on contribution of Kiwi soldiers in Iraq
Apolitical editor fter spending half an hour with Ron Mark last week, it is clear the Defence Minister’s first-hand experience in Iraq has changed his mind about a) calling Iraqis cowards and b) opposing the sending over of more than 100 Kiwi troops who have helped to train more than 30,000 Iraqis.
It is also clear, without his spelling it out, that he will recommend to Cabinet that the Kiwis, who work alongside the Australian Defence Force, stay on past November.
He said when he met Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defence Minister Erfan alHayali he wanted to find out if New Zealand was welcomed, valued, whether it was making a difference, and whether they wanted New Zealand to stay.
“What came back was ‘ boy are we appreciated, boy are we valued’,” Mark said.
The theme that came back from all he spoke to in the Government, the military, and Australians in the joint mission was that not only were the New Zealanders professional and experienced but that culturally they fitted in.
Mark said he had seen it himself 38 years ago while serving in the Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai — “the ease with which New Zealand Defence Force personnel can blend into another environment, another culture where there are differing religious beliefs and customs.”
“A lot of it is around the Maori stuff and the culture but it is also around the values and the ethos of our Defence Force,” he said.
“We have no ulterior motives for being there. We have no reason other than to try and help Iraqi peace and stability to its people.”
Mark said the Australians at Taji base also appreciated NZ and the joint mission blended well. “When you get welcomed on with a powhiri and you see an Australian colonel leading the powhiri, welcoming you in te reo Maori and taking part in the haka with Australians in the kapa haka group as well, you quickly sense that [the team] is pretty well integrated.”
Mark delivered his damning epithet on Iraqi “cowards” as an opposition MP after Iraqi troops fled the battle of Ramadi in 2015. No one raised it while he was in Iraq.
“The Iraqi leadership, the Iraqi command and the Iraqi soldiers are different to what they were then,” said Mark.
“In that respect New Zealand is one nation that has made a hell of a difference. The Iraqis tell you that.”
He had congratulated the Iraqi leaders on their “stunning victory . . . They have transformed and I absolutely acknowledge that. They are a different Army”.
The focus of Mark’s talks in Iraq and later at an anti-Isis conference in Rome and at Nato in Brussels was what a post-Isis Iraq would require.
One report put infrastructure reconstruction at $100 billion. And civil servants would require training and mentoring — health, education, justice and police.
Military would need to be transitioned from direct frontline contact with civilians and police transitioned in.
Even though Isis had been beaten, training was needed.
Mark took Justice Minister Andrew Little and National MP Simon O’Connor with him and Mark said Little made it clear in briefings that civil liberties and human rights were paramount to New Zealand.
NZ’s 110 soldiers at Camp Taji and at bases in the region were sent by the previous Government until this November but decisions about the future are needed before that.