There’s been widespread sceptism and outrage in response to the Government’s announcement that New Zealand troops will be sent to Iraq, writes Bryce Edwards.

In November Prime Minister Key referred to ISIL as a ‘game changer’ for New Zealand. I wasn’t convinced, especially as the government was focusing on the domestic aspect in seeking to justify increased surveillance powers.

The decision to commit NZ military contingent to Iraq is a case of misguided foreign policy.

Edmund Burke once said political decisions often involve a choice between intolerable and disagreeable options.

A senior US security official will visit New Zealand next month as part of a tour of the Asia-Pacific.

71: Frank Bullock-Webster took the long road to the Western Front.

I believe the decision to commit our troops to Iraq was made a long time ago, and was a decision our Prime Minister had to make for geo-political reasons that gave him little option, writes Dita De Boni.

Passions over the announced deployment of a New Zealand training mission to Iraq spilled over in Parliament again yesterday.

John Key speaks on New Zealand's possible involvement in the fight against Isis.

Prime Minister John Key has all but confirmed that up to 100 New Zealand Defence Force staff will be sent to the Middle East to help Australia train Iraqi soldiers to fight Isis .

Cabinet is expected to approve sending soldiers to help Iraqi forces fight the Islamic State group when it meets tomorrow.

NZ troops are preparing to return to Iraq, a decade after Kiwi soldiers were last in the violence-wracked nation. On Monday the cabinet is expected to set the ground rules for the deployment.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for an international peacekeeping mission in his nation's war-torn east.

The public could be wise to be sceptical or wary about politicians trying to manipulate them about the global fight against ISIS, writes Bryce Edwards.

69: Snipers were on the battlefield long before Clint Eastwood revived the military gunman with his Iraq war film American Sniper.

Ukraine has appealed to the West to get tough on Russia after separatists it says are militarily backed by Moscow stormed a flashpoint town.

The film clip of Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee striding into the bowels of the $250 million Boeing C-17 Globemaster for a test drive this week was scary.

The 94-year-old Wellington veteran received the honour at French Ambassador Laurent Contini's home in Thorndon tonight.

67: The Great War was over. Lance Corporal Cyril Beattie was on a demobilisation train crossing Germany.

More than 11 months into the crisis he unleashed, Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in charge of the dynamic, seeking to confuse and divide the West as he apparently seeks to create a damaged....

What drives Putin is a grab-bag of emotional motives. His man in Kiev got overthrown, and he doesn't like to lose face, writes Gwynne Dyer.

Rising Hollywood star Kodi Smit-McPhee hates war.

As 4500 tonnes of explosives fell from 800 British planes, 25,000 Dresdeners died in a raging firestorm and the heart of their historic city was obliterated.

"Urgent. Soldiers of the Islamic State captured 21 Christian crusaders," was a barely noticed statement issued on social media last month by Isis - not in Syria, Iraq, but in Libya.

66: Sheep farmer Percy Overton was 37 when he sailed for war in October 1914.

One hundred years ago today, a skinny young labourer from Ngatimoti died on a dusty field on the other side of the world.

65: Evan Hudson's family made sure he would not be forgotten.