Even at the cost of your independence!?

For a country — and the same holds true for humans — it’s good to have allies, especially in times of crisis, but not at the cost of its independence and free will.

The risk of losing its independence poses itself on New Zealand as well, as they, according to http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11407112, have to decide whether or not to deploy troops to Iraq because the USA, its ally, is already doing so.

There are some reasons for and against the deployment.

An argument for the deployment, considering New Zealand’s relationship with the USA, is it’s good to be loyal to your ally, especially when it’s such an influential one as the USA. It poses risks of losing the ally. Furthermore, by deploying troops, New Zealand would stand out officially against the ISIS, the groups of extremists, which have increasing numbers, threatening “the international rules-based system”, according to http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11407112 .

Although it’s good to stand out against what is wrong, an argument against the deployment would be that the ISIS has never threatened New Zealand directly, which makes it hard to justify the deployment of troops in Iraq. Thus, getting involved militarily without intrinsic motivation, you’re more likely to fail. Even the Prime Minster talked about New Zealand’s involvement in Iraq as “’the price’ of belonging to ‘the club’ of Western allies” you have to pay, as stated on http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11404709.

It does sound as though not even the whole government is convinced about New Zealand’s participation in Iraq. That will make it even harder to justify New Zealand’s involvement in front of the soldiers as it’s them who need to be convinced to obey orders.

Consequently, the question is if the “price of belonging to the club”, the Prime Minister talked about, is worth to be paid. New Zealand had fought so hard to become independent of Great Britain, and, by joining its ally, the USA, against the ISIS, it would only become dependent on the next country. Especially with regard to their past, wouldn’t it be more worthwhile for New Zealand to claim their independence of the USA by standing up for their beliefs, rather than following the lead? That might involve not deploying troops, but still standing out against ISIS.