'Obscure ally' NZ should get over Pearl Harbor snub – Time magazine
Military correspondent dishes it out to "complaining" Kiwis.
New Zealand needs to get over its Pearl Harbour "snub", says Time magazine military correspondent Kirk Spitzer.
On his Battleland blog on Time's website today, Mr Spitzer wrote:
"In a gesture of friendship and goodwill toward an obscure former ally, warships from New Zealand have been granted special, private berthing privileges for a major naval exercise now under way in Hawaii. And wouldn’t you know it: they’re complaining."
Mr Spitzer quotes an NZ Herald editorial that labeled the alternative berth:
Petty, petulant and pathetic. What other conclusion is it possible to draw from the absurd, vindictive and ultimately short-sighted refusal by the United States to allow two New Zealand naval vessels to berth at the Pearl Harbor military base?
But the Time magazine man maintains the Kiwis have actually got the wrong end of the stick. Pearl Harbour is barren and surrounded by barbed wire.
The frigate Te Kaha's alternative berth in Honolulu’s "lovely civilian harbor" several miles away is surrounded by shops, restaurants and bars.
Besides, says Mr Spitzer, to gripe about the "snub" is to miss the real story: New Zealand has been invited to participate in Rimpac exercises off Hawaii for the first time since US warships were banned from NZ amid the no-nukes policy introduced in 1984.
NBR staff
Fri, 06 Jul 2012
Fri, 06 Jul 2012
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'Obscure ally' NZ should get over Pearl Harbor snub – Time magazine
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