A great article Bruce and the final point is well conceived. Abbott has lied about the budget crises and the media seem content to allow the lie to perpetuate. Going to war is something that will affect every Australia in ways not imagined. ISIS in particular will bring rebuttal from home-grown terrorism on soft targets and taking on Putin could see a return to the cold-war scenario of the fifties and sixties. Democracy must prevail here and serious discussion needs to take place. Abbott did not get a mandate for war.

Abbott is the last man in Australia who should be allowed to make decisions about Australia involving itself in America's endless Imperial Wars.

His chequered history shows his inability to think clearly about anything, let alone sending people's sons and daughters off to war to be killed.

The leadership of our country is in the hands of an erratic fool who played too many Cowboys and Indians games as a child to say nothing about being punch drunk from his boxing exploits.

Contact your local member and make your thoughts known!

Australia must become independent of America's hegemony!

Abbott, along with his Foreign Minister and his Attorney-General, are doing more than just following the US into an ill-conceived and unnecessary hot war in the Middle East and a self-destructive economic one in Europe. They are conspiring together, and I suspect this at the bidding of their US mentors, to bring a fledgling police state to light here within the borders of Australia.
Tho proffered justification for this new state will be that it is a considered response to a soon-to-be announced heightened terror alert. The reasons for a heightened alert will be that this is an unsought but unavoidable precaution now necessary due to the two mentioned wars-of-choice (Abbot's, Bishop's and Brandis' choice) into which we have been volunteered. It's a self-fulfilling circular argument, and as bogus as it is hard to counter.
For openers expect more police and more security checks in the coming month of footy finals and more, and heightened checks at airports. A "no-fly" list may soon follow. These, we will be told, will insure we do not suffer any terrorist attacks while the real reason for them will be to acclimatise us all to having more, and more intrusive, eyes all over us. The police will be given heightened and unaccountable powers to protect, get ready for it, the "homeland".

Hear hear. Rather than supplying arms (pouring fuel onto the fire) surely a more intelligent response would be an arms embargo; stop all munitions entering the country.
It's not as if we went in there to steal another country's natural resources, is it?
Morally and ethically, if we believe in the sovereign right of all nations to self determination then clearly all the international community can do is sequester the entire area. We need to break the cycle of violence and retribution.
Fanatics have very long memories.

Bruce; you'd likely be first in the cliff jumping queue, clamoring for US assistance/justice, were we ever attacked!
And given the military build ups in our area of influence, not inconceivable!
And given our volume or raw wealth and energy resources, not inconceivable!
And as envisaged, any M.E. assistance would not include very many Australian boots on the ground; ever, save some special purpose special forces, military trainers, advisers and humanitarian assistance/Anzac medical units?
The majority of military boots on the ground will be Egyptian, Lebanese, Qatari, Turkish and a few others; Muslim, and all entitled to place their boots on so called hallowed ground!
And more than enough raw numbers, to more than adequately deal with any regional problem, with a mostly regional solution!
And in long overdue, regional unity!
For evil to prosper, good men need only stand and do nothing.
And of all the evils visited upon planet earth in recent years; Isil is far and away, the most intensively evil!
Simply put, when facing something as inherently evil, doing nothing is never ever an option!
Moreover, those at greatest risk and with the most to lose at the murderous whim and caprice of Isil, are moderate Muslims!
And the Lamb will lay down with the Lion!
Rhrosty.

I've yet to see any rational explanation as to why we need to get involved in this or any other military action in the Middle East.
The Canetoad may love having a chance to try and distract us from his failures and dishonesty here but to my mind that is no excuse to get Australians killed, which is the inevitable outcome of his mindless adventurism.
ISIS is an Islamic problem, funded largely by Saudi Arabia and other Muslim supporters, and is no present threat to Australia, unless we make ourselves a target by attacking them.
Let those nations directly threatened by these nightmare maniacs deal with them, if they really need help with that let them ask for it via that HALL OF LUCRATIVE IDIOCY, otherwise known as the UN, and then let other Muslim nations be first providers for that, long before we consider assisitance, let alone actual involvement.
The canetoad is yet again proving the Peter Principle.
He has clearly risen to his "level of incompetence"!
Unfortunately he's dragging us into the mire with him, and he's going to get some of us killed in the process, and all because he can't think beyond his own immediate advantage!
The Canetoad is to Australia's foreign affairs what a drunken rhinocerous is to the proverbial China shop.