2015-12-10
Tony Abbott's reckless fascination with the use of military force makes us all less safe, the Australian Greens said today.
"Tony Abbott was a man of very few ideas when he was Prime Minister, and of those few, his favourite was his desire to send other people into harm's way. He wanted to send troops into Ukraine when tensions were extremely high in the days after the MH17 atrocity. He wanted to unilaterally reinvade Iraq. Now he wants to inflame the already incredibly dangerous situation in Syria with more troops, " Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Scott Ludlam said today.
"Mr Abbott pleaded with the U.S. to ‘ask' for our assistance in Syria, so he could deploy our Air Force and have a war of his own. There was not - and still isn't - a long term plan to combat Islamic State, or stem the flow of resources and weapons into the region.
"Experts agree that sending in ground forces will be both dangerous and counter-productive.
"What's Mr Abbott's plan for Assad in this ‘baddies vs baddies' situation? What's his plan for the millions more people that would be displaced in a region already straining to accommodate people fleeing war?
"This sort of knee-jerk posturing nonsense serves nobody's interests except Mr Abbott's and his conservatives in the hopelessly divided Liberal Party. Prime Minister Turnbull needs to rule out such a deployment and reel in Mr Abbott.