It started out as a “humanitarian” effort a few short months ago:
“At this stage I want to stress that this is very much a humanitarian mission to try to ensure that tens of thousands of people are not exposed to the murderous zealotry of the Islamic State.” — Tony Abbott, August 13, 2014.
A month later we were deploying aircraft and military advisers, but it didn’t mean we were at war. Now, Australia is joining the US in airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and sending Special Forces commandos in to advise the Iraqi military, in what the PM has admitted will be a long and dangerous mission:
“I want to reassure the Australian people that it will be as long as it needs to be, but as short as it possibly can be. I also need to warn the Australian people that this is a dangerous mission.” — Tony Abbott, October 3, 2014.
Are we at war yet? It’s safe to say we are. But as Jeff Sparrow writes today, many other critical questions about this conflict remain unanswered.
In explaining Australia’s latest commitment to Iraq on the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, Defence Minister David Johnston said: “All of us who have been there know that the secret to a counter-insurgency is to get the bad guys.” The problem is, the West’s fixation with one lot of “bad guys” has a long history of leading to the creation of the next generation of them: our fixation with the Soviets led to spread of Islamic fundamentalist militants; our fixation with Saddam Hussein (or his oil?) led to the success of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Now the West is helping arm and train “moderate” rebels in Syria, many of whom are hardly liberal secularists with an enthusiasm for Western values.
So who are we arming and assisting in this war that we’ve rushed into? And how do we know they won’t give rise to the next Islamic State?
Those are the questions that Johnston and Abbott must now answer.
I was particularly impressed by the way the rAbbott government was begging to join in the latest tranche of the Iraq war.
You would have thought a lesson had been learned over the last 12 years with our involvement in the coalition of the killing of Iraq and Afghanistan. We were being told all along it was necessary to make the world a safer place from terrorism. Yet here we are 12 years later, …at it again, and yes, again with a LNP government leading the country into another unwinnable war.
Has anyone ever explained the origin of the war material ISIS is using; it wouldn’t be the from the U.S. would it? The Humvees are a dead giveaway.
If dropping a few bombs is “humanitarian efforts” lets be real Christians and do a go job like nuking them back into the stone age.
After all they are only towel heads Its not like they are real people are they?
If Abbott’s the bloody answer, what’s the bloody question?
Klewi – not sure but bloody it certainly will be.
Humanitarian bombing is certainly the way to hearts & minds though, they’ll be spread over a wide area, but serves them right for being born in the wrong culture, at the wrong time.
Anyway, why is our oil under their sand?
Klewi – not sure of question or answer but bloody they certainly will be.
Humanitarian bombing is certainly the way to hearts & minds though, they’ll be spread over a wide area, but serves them right for being born in the wrong culture, at the wrong time.
Anyway, why is our oil under their sand?