Listen Now: 
February 26, 2015
NZ troops need public to have their back
Waatea Team
Posted On February 26, 2015
A former Maori soldier says troops heading for Iraq need to be given wholehearted support.
Vietnam veteran Matt Te Pou spent 21 years in the army, including three teaching at the Duntroon officer training school in Australia.
New Zealand is sending up to 143 personnel on what Prime Minister John Key calls a non-combat training mission alongside Australia at Taji Camp, north of Baghdad.
Mr Te Pou says he supports the mission to upskill Iraqi security forces in the fight to defeat Islamic State extremists, who are occupying large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
"We need to get in behind our soldiers, the decision has been made, let's get in behind them. So all this talk about what could or should have happened – effectively they're going in to do training and upskilling of the troops in the fight against ISIS, but at the end of the day, they're going in to a war-zone. There's nothing worse than going in to active service in a war zone, and you're not too sure if your people are with you," he says.
Matt Te Pou says Islamic State or ISIS has shown it has the focus and vision to be a global threat.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
