There are 34 Australian citizens in trouble.
These women and children must be helped to return home.
If in fact they have broken Australian Law, it is our problem, not someone else's.
We should not inflict our problems on another country.
And only the breaking of Australian Law should be considered.
Laws broken in another country are that country's problem, not ours.
The present approach by major political parties reminds me of schoolyard attitudes.
Which are often driven by impulse rather than reason.
Time for them to stop saying what they think people want to hear.
Time for them to tell the public what we should be doing.
I think we need to do what we can lawfully to facilitate the return of those 34.
It is disgraceful that we are allowing such a petty response to continue.
The vast majority of the 34 are children, which makes our approach all the more troublesome.
It is time for sanity to rule.

Hi Ipso Fatso,

I agree with what you say re Australian citizens. The government is taking the correct position in doing what is legally required of it, and no more. I hate to see innocent children used as political pawns, in the way they are, but with recent events and the low standing of the opposition, the rise of One Nation, they all see votes in this fiasco, and that's what they are fighting over.

Yep, bring back the kids...foster them out to families who'll break them of whatever rubbish their jihadist parents indoctrinated them with... leave the women to wallow in the mess they've created for themselves. Bring the women back - eventually- but keep them away from polite society.

mhaze,

I agree the children are the clearest case for repatriation. But the "leave the women to wallow" position assumes two things that aren't so straightforward:

1. That abandoning Australian citizens overseas is legally clean.
2. That leaving potentially radicalised adults in unstable regions makes us safer.

If any of the women committed offences under Australian law, then they should face Australian law. That's not indulgence, it's accountability.

Exile feels tough. It often just exports risk.

We either believe in our courts and security agencies, or we don't.

Hi Ipso Fatso,

I'm not sure that it's that straightforward.

I'm not sure it's entirely correct to consider them Australian citizens.
They left us to join the Islamic caliphate, remember?

Weren't they captured and kept in captivity by the Kurds?
Why not just release them into Syria where Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham took over, i.e. Israel and the U.S. engineered the overthrow of Syrian Assad government and installed Abu Mohammad al-Julani.

Isn't this what they pledged their allegiance to?

"These women and children must be helped to return home."
- Why must they?

"If in fact they have broken Australian Law, it is our problem, not someone else's."
- Aren't some of these kids ones that were once photographed holding the decapitated heads of Islamic State victims?
- Regardless of this, I don't care so much about what happened over there, I care about what these ISIS inspired kids will end up doing here in the future.

"We should not inflict our problems on another country."
- WE DIDN'T, THEY made their own choices.

"And only the breaking of Australian Law should be considered."
- Sounds like you want to give these kids a bowl of ice-cream
- So you're saying you're perfectly fine with having these young apprentice headchoppers hanging around your own granddaughters?
YOU MAY NOT CARE BUT OTHERS MIGHT, and it may not be your granddaughters, but it'll be someones...

"Laws broken in another country are that country's problem, not ours."
- Maybe you should call up Assad in Russia and ask him if he wants to get the gang back together to lay legitimate charges on these band of lunatics brides?

[Cont.]
"The present approach by major political parties reminds me of schoolyard attitudes.
Which are often driven by impulse rather than reason."
- That's because they still think and act like schoolkids and never outgrew the childish mentality.

"I think we need to do what we can lawfully to facilitate the return of those 34."
- Not without safeguards for the other 25 million.
- Can we vote on it?

"It is disgraceful that we are allowing such a petty response to continue."
Australians aren't responsible for other Australian's stupid choices.

"The vast majority of the 34 are children, which makes our approach all the more troublesome"
- The fact they are kids themselves, does not negate the considerations of protection other Australian kids may deserve if these IS kids have a radical extremist ideology ingrained into them from an early age.
- I care about the kids of Aussie mums who did not decide to join the caliphate.

"It is time for sanity to rule."
- Firstly display it, only then may I then entertain it, because I'm not sure sanity is demonstrated by bringing these ISIS kids back to mingle with the other non-ISIS kids.