Our military, aid and refugee package for Syria is typical
The latest military, humanitarian aid and refugee resettlement response to the Syrian crisis, as Tony Abbott told parliament yesterday, is the Australian way. Our nation has a proud and often understated record of fighting in the world's trouble spots, helping the downtrodden and welcoming the dispossessed. It is the continuity - how this nation's efforts in relation to the Iraq-Syria conflagration are not unusual in our national story - that the Prime Minister emphasised and that is lost on his critics. "When we see a problem we roll up our sleeves and do what we can to help," Mr Abbott said.  
"That's what we have always done, collectively and individually, at home and abroad, that's always what we have done." He is right and it was worth reminding some of our more excitable parliamentarians and superficial activists that their nation is a reliable and generous one. Yet there was an element of political catch-up from the Prime Minister, too - an attempt to explain his initial hesitancy about further action as merely the exercise of wise consideration. "It is important," he said, "as always, to think before we act and it is important that the government has considered the report from (Immigration) Minister (Peter) Dutton in Europe and spoken to our expert advisers and officials here in Australia in preparing this response." The government announced a multifaceted approach to a complex issue and, as is always best in matters of national security and humanitarian aid, they won bipartisan support from Bill Shorten and Labor. Only appalling partisanship from Sarah Hanson-Young sullied the consensus as she tweeted that Mr Abbott's actions had been "forced" and that Australia's military action in Syria "will create" more refugees. Like independent MP Andrew Wilkie, the Greens are in the contradictory position of arguing Australia should do more to help increasing numbers of Syrian refugees but not enjoin military efforts to return their country to safety and security.
The decision to authorise missions over Syria by RAAF strike aircraft already operating in Iraqi airspace was expected. Despite the legal murkiness of operating without the invitation of the odious Assad regime, the mission can be justified on the basis of Iraq's self-defence against an Islamic State enemy that has rendered that border meaningless. Mr Abbott has made clear that our bombers will target only Islamic State terrorists, not forces loyal to Damascus. Still, the mission plan lacks clarity. Unless Iraqi and Syrian forces can recover significant tracts of territory, the airstrikes are more about containment than rendering areas safe for civilian return. In a nod to earlier failures in Iraq, Mr Abbott downplayed expectations: "This is not an attempt to build a shining city on a hill, this is not an attempt to build a liberal pluralist market democracy overnight in the Middle East." Yet the implications of the struggle cannot be wished away by the Greens or others. "Destroying this death cult is essential," said the Prime Minister, "not just to ending the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East but also to ending the threat to Australia and the wider world." Humanitarian aid remains a significant priority to care for millions of displaced Syrians in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Additional funding of $44 million brings the total in recent years to about $230m and it is unlikely to be the last tranche. The commitment immediately to take 12,000 additional refugees (almost a full additional annual quota) ranks as one of the most generous in the world given our relative size and distance from the crisis. Syrian refugees (chosen on the basis of need with a special emphasis on women, children and families from persecuted minorities who have no hope of repatriation) could arrive before Christmas. Given the millions displaced, this number will not change the course of this momentous Middle East disruption - military and political action is the only hope at the source. But those who are fortunate enough to be resettled here will have the course of their lives changed dramatically and wondrously. The welcoming and successful story of Australian migration and multiculturalism will become their story. They will bring their history of dispossession and their new-found luck to the lucky country.Yet here, too, there must be a word of caution. We cannot avoid the discomforting reality that some of the Australian jihadists contributing to the Islamic State carnage are the sons of people who arrived here in the 1970s, when last we offered refuge to large numbers of people fleeing the Levant. This underscores the need for diligent checks on who we accept. And it also highlights the longer-term challenge of ensuring appropriate services are provided. Education, employment and integration are crucial for all immigrant cohorts and it important to get this one right. The Prime Minister told parliament that, as a nation, "We have to act with our heads as well as with our hearts." After a tentative start, he seems to have struck the right balance.