Flying from Dubai to Istanbul I was pleased to see that Emirates doesn’t fly over war zones, thereby avoiding the fate of MH17, so instead of flying in a direct line over Iraq and Syria, we detoured north over Iran and then flew east-west the length of Turkey to our destination.

Coincidentally, as I was avoiding a war zone, Captain Tony Abbott committed more Australian troops to this very same war zone.

This looks like mission creep, for the prime minister initially said that “there would be no boots on the ground”.

It looks horribly similar to another conflict in which our involvement began in a small way but grew and grew until, in Vietnam, 496 Australian died and 2398 were wounded (ABS statistics).

That was an unwinnable war, as this one also seems to be.

It’s an intractable mess driven by sectarian hatred that is potentially being made even worse with US involvement.

There’s no clear endgame, and so no end to it.

The PM has “has absolutely zero idea of what success would look like,” as Senator Christine Milne perceptively said.

“We have a situation where we have Shiite militias fighting alongside Iraqi troops, we have Iraqi special units under investigation for war crimes,” she said.

“There is no end to it.

“There will never be a clear idea of what victory would look like.”

And once again, it was the PM and cabinet that made the decision. 

This government again didn’t have either the decency or the courage to put it to parliament, so yet once more ignoring the elected representatives of the people.

"The Prime Minister said he will review the deployment after 12 months,” (The Daily Advertiser, April 15, 2015), but I ask against what criteria?

What will constitute success or failure, what will determine whether our boys and girls stay or come home?

Unfortunately Captain Abbott stays silent on this crucial question.

With all eyes only on the opinion polls he can, and will, probably get away with it, unfortunately.

- Ray Goodlass