By Helen Clark
A contingent of Australian troops are to be dispatched on a training mission.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is getting at least one of his wishes: Australian troops will be deployed to Iraq in the fight against ISIS. By May, at least 300 Australians will be helping to train the Iraqi army, working together with troops from New Zealand. They will be sent to Taji, outside Baghdad.
This “building partner capacity training mission” was approved by the Cabinet and will run for two years, with a review at the end of the first year. In fact, there are already Australian troops in Iraq, helping train local troops.
This “next phase” of Australian engagement came after Iraqi and American requests to Australia, though Abbott has never needed much arm twisting in this fight. The Australian recently reported that Abbott was keen to send Australian troops to fight ISIS single handedly, something the defense chiefs saw as utterly untenable.
Read the full story at The Diplomat