When Australia should send its troops to foreign lands

Here we go again. It seems as though a crisis, of its own making, in a far-away land will possibly see Australian soldiers boots hit the sand, and the real possibility their blood may soak it. But while the Abbott government weighs up the relative merits of answering Obamas call and jumping into Iraq for a second time in a decade, it would be well-placed to remember the lessons from a far more successful expedition 15 years ago. Commitments since then in the Middle East have eclipsed the Timor intervention in the public consciousness. There Australia has made niche, calibrated contributions to coalition campaigns, with casualty aversion paramount. But being far from Australias shores this involvement has never commanded full attention. It should not come as a surprise therefore that Australia has had little real sway in the turn of events there.