Do you think Australia should be sending men to Syria/Iraq?

I don't think the UK should be there, so I definitely don't see why Australia should get involved. I don't think it will do either side any favours.

by Bryony Harrison

This time, I do not think we should send troops over.

Too many of our sons are being killed in other countries and it must be so awful for the parents.

I am tending now to think that it is not our problem even though a lot consider it is.

We are a lucky country -I woudl like it to remain so.

by Finy

I'm not sure. I have very conflicting feelings on war. I hate it and hate the thought of fighting and killing BUT I can see that the consequences of allowing the fighting in Iraq and Syria to continue could be disastrous on a vast scale. For example, polio had been eradicated in Syria for over 15 years and because of the current conflict, it has now returned.

If by having countries such as Britain and Australia sending in troops, the war can be contained and resolved quickly, then I would agree with it. Sadly, history seems to indicate that isn't a likely outcome but can we just turn our faces away and do nothing? I wish I knew what the answer was.

by VerityG

There has to be another way.

by Vee

what! Not with people like this who behead people!

What do you say about those Americans that shot unarmed civilians and laughed while doing so?

I fear it will not make any difference in the long run and many of our boys will be killed in action....however, the number of innocent people including kids being slaughtered makes one feel the world should try to help them. Ground troops may not be the best way....not sure..

by Fran

by jonaja

Absolutely NOT! it's a giant political stunt to take distract people from their miserly budget. This government is a complete sham.

by meggf

No. And just for the record I don't think we should send any women either! I think we should look at just closing the borders...perhaps we could send troops to just stand at the borders and ensure that nobody comes out or in (yes...I know how stupid that idea actually is!!). While I feel really sad for the innocent bystanders involved in this war I don't think that we can go in and impose our western ideas and values on how a country "should" be run. Globalisation has been a massive failure and we need to look at getting back to individual countries living off their own resources and not meddling in others affairs. This goes both ways - Iraqis can all stay in their country and British can stay in their and Aussies can stay in theirs etc until everyone learns to play nicely together!!

by lizzi

I agree in a lot of what you say, lizzi, but it will never happen -too many nasty people in the world to play nicely!

you are right absolutly Lizzy .We should not bring potential terrorist to our country
anymore. All suspisious people must be sent back to their homeland.

So, refugees should just be sent home to be shot or tortured? Will you be signing up to tell the children that we don't care about their safety?

And what are we going to do when the Ebola virus landson our doorstep? Today Julie Bishop said we could not send troops in to West Africa to help prevent its spread because we did not have the capacity to bring Australians infected home. How come the USA and UK can do that but not us?

I did say that I don't think my "solution" is actually a solution. One of the big reasons is because of refugees...I can't sit back and let them be so mistreated in their own countries - but I do still think that globalisation has been a massive failure. More needs to be done about empowering the people to take control of their own countries. I very much support the humane treatment of refugees trying to get out of their countries - especially since a lot of their troubles have been caused by western meddling in their affairs to start with!

There are 2 parts to this issue. The first is that ISIS like most other insane groups who lust after power has a clear goal to commit genocide against all minorities.
The first act upon taking control of an area is to round up the minority groups a large portion of these being Christians who have lived in these villages for 2 thousand years. The children are then removed from the families. They are then requested to denounce their faith or have their throats cut in front of their family. If they convert to Islam to save their necks then they are divided into asset groups. Some will be forced into service with the ISIS. Girls often sold into sexual slavery on the worlds black markets to raise funds for ISIS. Death in most cases would have been the better option.
So do we stand by and do nothing in order to promote peace or do we act to defend these people. Do we maintain air warfare only to avoid losing our troops to yet another of these pointless conflicts?
At the moment The ISIS fighters or should I describe them as murderers are hiding from sudden death from above with little or no risk to our forces. If we send ground troops they suddenly have a target and are encouraged to feel like real soldiers. I believe that a big part of the attraction to the young people joining these groups is a need to act out the feelings they developed playing war games for hours on computers and watching war movies.
This brain washing is a big part of the problem. If you doubt this then ask yourself this. If you believe repeated images and sounds don't convert peoples thinking why then does the advertising industry get paid trillions of dollars to promote goods?
Why did we learn the times table by constantly repeating them.
While I am not sure about the level of action we should take to defend the villagers I am sure that we need to rethink the way as a society we promote and glorify war.
We need to stop blaming individual nations for the problem of war and understand that war is generated by individuals and corporations who profit from the sale of arms and the control of the assets.
Humans need to fight against evil intolerance and greed across all of humanity and make it clear that we have developed an understanding of the true causes.
We then need to reject the current methods and demand a new way of thinking from our leaders.

by kstew

I really do not think that two wrongs make a right.

by AJ

No. I didn't agree the first time round.

by shayd

No. I don't think so.

by dwatk

No. I think that this will put us more on the map. It says "Hello look at us, we are helping the yanks"! making us a target… at the moment we are left alone and we are lucky to live here under a democracy. But I do feel that when you live in rome, you live like a roman! Mind you, the war there is despicable and innocents are being slaughtered.

by brigi

Absolutely NOT.
More cow poo from Mr Rabbot in an attempt to distract people from all the rubbish he and his party are trying to push through Parliament.
He is a very desperate man and any time he makes a decision, It makes me very nervous.

by fran.

I agree,
stay away from the Middle East, let them fight it out and then deal with any problems later,
CHF

No, but I think they should send food and water. I hate seeing innocent children cry.

by pfuit

The only way this war against evil will be won is by 'up the guts with bags of smoke' as we used to say in Officer Training ie bomb the .... out of them & by having 1000's of coalition Infantrymen on the ground to overwhelm & annihilate them. They cannot be let to 'win'. It would literally be the 'end of the world as we know it'.
And that's what makes me so angry with our Federal Gov't's of the last 25 years letting these cultist nut cases come into Australia, give them everything (better off than OUR own Pensioners), including Citizenship & permanent residency. They breed evil & they MUST be stopped by ANY means possible.

by donjo

No, let the Arabs and Muslims sort their own problems out.
Does Saudi Arabia intervene - no?
Farley

by farle

As the wife of a Vietnam vet I say a resounding NO. We have been married 50 years next year and believe me it's been no bed of roses but I married for better or worse. I'ts not his fault but the fallout from PTSD and paranoia can be hard to live with at times.

by danie