From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 2, August 2003.

Tonga was fulfilling an obligation to the United States when it supported the Coalition operation in Iraq, Tonga’s Prince Regent, Crown Prince Tupouto‘a said on July 22 when questioned by Matangi Tonga on Tonga’s position.

“Tonga’s commitment to the Coalition operations in Iraq is not opportunistic in any way. I believe that the government was motivated by a sense of obligation to the United States because of the protection she provided the Kingdom during the Second World War,” he said.

“This is the first occasion that the United States has asked for any kind of military assistance since the end of the war and, of course, Tongans being Tongans, the Government felt honour-bound to agree.”

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The Crown Prince said he did not believe that the Tongan government was misled in any way to become part of the Coalition.

“Regarding the way that Coalition Governments have been misleading the press, what is truly astonishing to me is how everybody seems so surprised that a politician in a democracy is telling a lie. Surely, this is normal behaviour, and the big news story might be if a politician should be caught just once telling the truth?

“Why is everybody so shocked? Did they not express their democratic rights by electing these liars to office? It is, as you know, politically incorrect to tell the public that they are to blame for anything, so I suggest that the ever sycophantic media might blame the inhabitants of Mars or Jupiter for stuffing the ballot boxes of the great democracies,” he said.