Should Australia provide military contributions in the war against ISIS?
The knife, scarred with blood, glinting in the sun, pressed firmly under the chin. The orange clothes, unequivocal, unambiguous, unmistakable, against the lifeless desert surroundings. A forced message, first personal for the family of the victim, then an attack on the victim’s country. The gallant, chivalrous face, thankful, that this torture will finally end. The knife cuts viciously, ferocious, the victims face contorting uncontrollably in a frenzy. A gleaming look of victory on the face of the radical militant, as the victims head lifts clean for the camera to see. The final footage, the body a crumpled mass of orange and red, blood pooling, flies already swarming. The lifeless head, held aloft from the hair, like a trophy of triumph and success. Twelve hours later on the other side of the world…
“Middle-Eastern man sporting jihadist symbols kills person from the Western-World.” Ladies and Gentlemen, I put this to you-would we like this to continue to happen? Surely, as sane human beings, we don’t. But for the last six months, this has been happening far, far too often-almost a daily occurrence. If you are rational, join me, on the side of the argument committed to removing ISIS from existence. Make no mistake-no matter how well ISIS members portray themselves through social media as religious crusaders; intent on killing anyone who condemns and criticizes their religion, ISIS is a terrorist organization- a radical group of extremist militants, determined to spread their extremist views, aiming to spread terror by gaining attention in news reports worldwide. ISIS is like a weed with many branches, noxious, spreading, infecting, and overtaking. We cannot just keep trimming the leaves so it does not spread onto our shores, the problem will still be right at our door. We must exterminate the weed from the roots, so it can never grow back again. To do this, we must join forces with all countries willing to fight for humanity and justice, and remove ISIS from its strongholds of Raqqa in Syria, and Mansuriyah in Iraq.
When Australia first joined this saga and sent fighter planes to the Middle –East, even though no Australians had been directly affected, we may have asked “How does this concern us?” or “Why should we care?” ”Why should the Government make military contributions to a war that does not involve Australia, and be dragged into a war that originally had no concern to us?”
However, on the 15th of December 2014, a switch was flicked inside us all. We got home, switched on the TV, and found that a crazed Muslim man, sporting jihadist and ISIS symbols, who was on bail, and should have been in prison at that point, was holding 18 people hostage in the Lindt café in Sydney’s CBD, in broad daylight. That day reverberated in all of us. Terrorism, not occurring in some far-flung place on the other side of the world that most of struggle to pronounce, but here in the middle of the biggest city in Australia, on a weekday, during the morning commute to work. The Australian culture, one of few where freedom and safety are placed so highly on our agenda, questioned, because the actions of tyrannical madmen. While the gunman, Man Haron Monis, was not directly under Islamic State instruction, ISIS members later praised his efforts publicly. A man, praised, by ISIS for killing two every day, innocent Australians, one with three children under the age of five, who now don’t have a mother. Praised for his effort and determination. Praised, for bringing Australia into mourning.
The aftermath of the Sydney siege raises another point-did the Sydney siege occur because of our countries actions to join in the counter-terrorism? Would this mean that the deaths of Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson could have been avoided? It is an interesting
