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NZ's Strategic Military Doctrine

The NZ Government has decided to bring NZ troops home from Iraq.  This seems like a timely move.  Troops, however, will remain in Afghanistan.

The question that would immediately spring to the mind of a curious Martian would be, Why has New Zealand--that tiny wee nation which nestles up to the South Pole--been sending soldiers to Iraq?  Why would New Zealand be involved in such a strange commitment?  Does New Zealand have globalist pretensions to subdue and rule over far flung nations?

Firstly, let's review the "reason" for our military involvement in Iraq:

New Zealand has had a joint-training mission in Iraq with Australia since 2015, all part of the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve.  "The New Zealand and Australian troops at Taji have worked hard, not only to provide training, but also to ensure that the ISF are well placed to take over this commitment at Taji in the near future. The goal of any training mission is to ensure that it becomes a sustainable programme," Ardern said, noting over 42,000 troops had been trained under the scheme.

ISIS lost all territorial control in the Middle East earlier this year. New Zealand will slightly increase its annual contribution to an Iraqi stabilisation fund - up to $3 million from $2.4m prior - for the next three years.  [Stuff]

For many years New Zealand has not funded a sufficient military presence or power to defend itself.
  The country is basically an open door to any hostile power.  If Aucklanders awoke one morning to the sight of a flotilla of hostile warships in the Hauraki Gulf there would be nothing of substance to defend the nation.  We repeat.  Nothing--at least nothing of any substance.  We would have no choice but to surrender.

Well, not quite.  We have alliances with "friendly" neighbours--Australia, the United States, and the UK at a pinch.  They could be trusted to commit their own precious treasure and military capability to defend our nation.  At least that's what we tell ourselves--and, indeed, the ink has long been dry on the mutual treaties to that effect.

Why have successive New Zealand governments gone down this road?  The answer is mercenary.  It has been (and is still) deemed to be cheaper for us to get other nations to deploy their military to defend us than it is for New Zealand to pay for its own defence (both in people and military hardware and technology).  That is good (or so we are told--and, indeed, so we tell ourselves) because it allows successive NZ governments to spend its tax extracted money upon social welfare, redistribution, social subsidies--anything except a genuine commitment to defend our nation against hostile attack. 

It is far cheaper for New Zealand to send a few troops to Iraq train soldiers in the use of (US) military equipment, and to train them in tactics and patterns of war, than it is to raise funds and maintain sufficient military resources to defend ourselves. 

And that should cause every New Zealand citizen to hang his or her head in shame.  New Zealand has a war doctrine.  It is called "others".   It makes us very proud.