NZ butter for Iraqi guns? Tell me we didn't go to war for Fonterra

Clark sent troops to Iraq over Fonterra - cables
Senior Defence Ministry staff told the United States Embassy that former Prime Minister Helen Clark had decided to send soldiers to Iraq to stop Fonterra losing lucrative Oil for Food contracts, WikiLeaks cables reveal.

One of hundreds of leaked diplomatic cables, the information from the US Embassy in Wellington said the identities of the unnamed defence staff should be "strictly protected", after they briefed embassy staff on a Cabinet meeting in which Miss Clark's government did an about turn on sending troops to Iraq, the Dominion Post reported.

"Senior MOD officials (strictly protect) tell us it was not until Finance Minister Michael Cullen pointed out in a subsequent Cabinet meeting that New Zealand's absence from Iraq might cost NZ dairy conglomerate Fonterra the lucrative dairy supply contract it enjoyed under the United Nations Oil for Food program," the cable said.

It said the prime minister "found a face-saving compromise" by sending non-combat engineers to be embedded with British forces.

Ummmmmmm, what? We went to war in Iraq to make sure Fonterra made money from the food program? Oh you have got to be joking me, NZ butter for Iraqi guns? This is about as low as it gets, how much influence and power does Fonterra have dammit? They managed to censor chapter 13 of the ten yearly environmental report into how much damage their industry causes the environment...

Hard-hitting green study doctored
Officials suppressed a hard-hitting final chapter to the landmark State of the Environment report that blames farming for causing many of the country's environmental problems. The ditched chapter 13, leaked to the Greens, says increasingly intense farm practices have left a legacy of pollutants and contamination. And it says the scale of the problem is so big that voluntary accords with the dairy industry and other measures to clean up farming will make little immediate difference.
"The pulling of the chapter suggests someone in the government didn't want the full story out there," Greens co-leader Russel Norman said.

...so the Dairy industry can censor environmental reports AND get us involved in wars? Black gold warps American foreign affairs, does white gold dictate ours as well?